Interview by Ella Foote
The sea. As a swimmer, you may have started your outdoor swim adventures in the sea. Paddling, splashing and learning to swim in shallow waters on beach holidays, collecting shells and making sand castles. Today, you might look out to sea and wonder if you could cross it as a stronger swimmer, pulling your body through the water to conquer channels, maelstroms and distances along the coastline. Once you learn the sensation of seaweed brushing your legs, the texture of sand between your toes and taste of saltwater on your lips, it is like being under a spell for life.
“I love swimming in the sea,” says Charlotte Runcie, author of Salt on Your Tongue: Women and the Sea, a new book for 2019. “The sea has a feeling of having its own physicality and character. You don’t feel like you are swimming in something passive, you feel like you are with something, another character almost. That is what I love about it, you feel like you are not alone and you are surrounded by life.”
MYTHOLOGY AND MAGIC