Shiver: The Lessons of the Loch
By: Brigid Lowe
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AS FEATURED ON WOMAN’S HOUR – BBC RADIO 4
After Brigid Lowe’s life is upended, she turns to Scotland’s wild waters for refuge and for reckoning. Drawn deeper by their bone cold comfort, she set herself a challenge: to swim a thousand lochs.
And so her adventures begin: stepping into ice and caves and sacred springs, she swims with birds, conger eels and seals, in lochs held in dripping forest, towering mountains and ancient moor, alone and with her children in tow. Immersed in these secret pools, with their vaulting chasms and softer shallows, she tests the line between recklessness and safety, pain and pleasure – and, at last, life and death – discovering new depths of strength, endurance and fluent potential.
Shiver is a love-letter to Scotland – its flowers and rocks, myths and legends, highlands and islands – and to its chill waters, which swept Brigid off her feet only to carry her back home again.
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‘A book to bring delight to lovers of water in all its forms and manifestations, to wild swimmers and lovers of wildness, gorgeous landscapes and, above all, of Scotland.’ Esther Woolfson, author of Corvus
‘As clear and magical as the Highland lochs and as filled with colour as the Hebridean seas in which she swims.’ Annie Worsley, author of Windswept
‘Luminous, graceful, and immersive… its greatest gift lingers long after the final page is closed, like a long-forgotten call to return to the watery world of our wild selves.’ Victoria Bennett, author of The Apothecary By the Sea
WINNER OF THE RSL GILES ST AUBYN AWARD FOR NON-FICTION
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‘After a life crisis, Lowe moved to Scotland and found in its icy waters a place of visceral relief. Bracing certainly but also radiating immense warmth, this memoir charts [Brigid’s] quest to swim in 1,000 of the nation’s lochs, and forms a love letter to Caledonia.’
- The Bookseller, September Non-Fiction Highlights -
‘Immersive, insightful and beautifully written. Shiver is a story of resilience, belonging and quiet devotion. Brigid Lowe invites us to reclaim our adventurous spirit and find rootedness in the natural world.’
- Elizabeth Sulis Kim, author of The Book of Beasts: Reclaiming Animal Wisdom -
‘A real cold-lovers tour of the waters of Scotland… Shiver will make you want to get out your maps, pack up your swimming kit, fill your flask, and make plans.’
- Polly Atkin, author of Swimming the Seasons -
‘A book to bring delight to lovers of water in all its forms and manifestations, to wild swimmers and lovers of wildness, gorgeous landscapes and, above all, of Scotland. In her brave and often peril-laden accounts of journeys both actual and metaphysical, Brigid Lowe inspires us by piercing observation and with the indomitability of her spirit.’
- Esther Woolfson, author of Corvus: A Life With Birds -
‘A luminous, graceful, and immersive memoir that asks what it means to trust and embrace change. Written with grace and quiet courage, Shiver invites us to loosen our grip on who we have been, and to find our way home to ourselves. It is a gentle reminder that we do not need to control the water around us, only rediscover our capacity to move with strength and beauty within it. Beautifully written, its greatest gift lingers long after the final page is closed, like a long-forgotten call to return to the watery world of our wild selves.’
- Victoria Bennett, author of The Apothecary By the Sea -
‘Brigid Lowe writes about Scotland’s lochs as places of pause – and in doing so, offers readers one too.’
- Freya Bromley, author of The Tidal Year -
‘Shiver is an immersive experience into the healing potential of water. From the first page, Brigid’s words will carry you until you are surrounded by dramatic Scottish landscapes and feeling the freezing water on your skin. It is a book about nature’s power to bring us through the most turbulent times and, if we let it, its ability to save us from ourselves. Allow Shiver to show you how Scotland and its lochs can heal our deepest emotional wounds.’
- Charlie Bingham, author of The Life‑Affirming Magic of Birds -
‘Shiver is a beautiful exploration of both familiar and hidden waters, and the natural world. In a delightful melding of both memoir and nature writing with prose as clear and magical as the Highland lochs and as filled with colour as the Hebridean seas in which she swims, Brigid Lowe has created a wonderfully evocative and passionate book. Shiver will live long in the minds and hearts of readers from across the UK.’
- Annie Worsley, author of Windswept -
‘As Brigid Lowe swims through inky water and sparkling light, braving swirling mists and the sharp crack of ice, she takes the reader on a wild and beguiling journey around the waters of Caledonia. Shiver is an exploration of place beautifully interwoven with an excavation of self.’
- Laura Pashby, author of Chasing Fog