The Swimming Pool: From the author of ITV’s Our House starring Martin Compston and Tuppence Middleton

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Will is a member of the Corinthian Club (‘the Corry’) at which he swims, exercises and cruises men. The Corry is in no formal sense a gay club, indeed it is made clear that there are non-gay members, but there is a pervasive homoerotic atmosphere. The characters are well built and the plot is never boring, although there is little action. In retrospect, I realise that this novel is characterized by a very well defined structure that allows the reader not to lose themselves in its three timelines. Through Nantwich's diary, the novel is also concerned with the lives of gay men before the gay liberation movement, both in London and in the colonies of the British Empire. Louise Candlish takes a believable situation and clouds the underbelly in shadow. So I suggest that you go set up your sun-lounger and prepare to be entertained by the characters, setting and a plot that swirls like a whirlpool! Hollinghurst enjoyed his time at Canford, and wrote enthusiastically about it in the old boys' magazine, the Canfordian, a couple of years ago, recalling with affection two teachers who had opened his mind to poetry, painting and architecture. The critic Peter Parker, who was at school with him, says he "never thought of him as a boy – he always seemed old". Parker recalls that Hollinghurst had a self-deprecating manner and even then his trademark bass voice, and that the poetry he wrote for the magazine Parker founded was mature and fully formed: "I am rather proud to have been his first publisher."

Natalie Steele is a primary school teacher when the Elm Hill lido opens, meaning her days can be filled with nothing beyond long lazy days by the pool. At first, with her husband taking on private tutoring students over the summer holidays and her daughter’s fear of the water, Natalie’s daily swims become something of an escape for her, some time to spend giving herself over to her love of swimming once again. But when she meets the beautiful and charming Lara Channing, her new neighbour and the former model and actress who spearheaded the campaign to re-open the lido, Natalie is instead flattered by her attentions and wants nothing more than to be drawn ever closer into her elite circle, maybe even at the cost of her relationships with her husband, daughter and friends. This nonfiction book chronicles one man’s quest to complete the Ocean’s Seven, in which a swimmer must cross: the Channel, the Cook Strait, the north Channel (from Ireland to Scotland), the Strait of Gibraltar, the Molokai Strait, the Catalina Channel and the Tsugaru Strait. Only a handful of people have completed all seven swims. It’s a retelling of an adventure that’s difficult to put into words precisely because so few people have done it. Don't get me wrong, there's lots to like, it's just spread too thinly over the course of the book, so I'm giving this a low rating because I really had to slog through (but I really wanted to know the ending, so Rinehart was at least doing something right.There are very few modern books that can get away with this, but in Rinehart I adore it for some reason, and that's the "had I but known" style! "If I had only known what was to happen next." "The next day revealed my mistake." "That night was the last time I would...." It's so dumb, but in Rinehart, I lap it up and love it! While I was reading The Swimming Pool I constantly felt ill at ease. I loved how Louise Candlish manages to keep a constant level of tension and suspicion. The Swimming Pool is a book filled with secrets, unreliable characters and fascinating events. Something has happened and it's slowly being revealed. Everything in this story is exactly as it should be and it's the preciseness that makes this book so incredible. Louise Candlish has a great sense of timing and she delivers exactly when the story requires it. Natalie and Ed have been married 16 years. They're both teachers and they have one child, 13 year old Molly, who has a phobia about water. When the local swimming pool opens, Natalie starts attending and gets to know mega-glam, mega-wealthy, Lara. To her delight, Lara welcomes Natalie into her circle of friends with open arms. Soon Natalie is hanging out with Lara on a daily basis, ignoring the rifts that this creates with her former friends and her husband.

The Swimming-Pool Library won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1988, and the E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1989. Except that epoch of Judith's life is coming to an end: she one day tells her patrician husband she's going to Reno to get a divorce, and said husband asks Lois to accompany her – which, reluctantly, she does. And on this trip something happens to push Judith over the edge from brittle but confident to the point of arrogance … to terrified.During the reading, I sensed the author’s efforts to keep my focus on the core of story, preventing me from taking too much notice about the daughter of the protagonist, Molly, but I didn’t realise to what extent this aspect was crucial. Will takes Phil out clubbing at The Shaft. He has not been there for many months and there are vivid descriptions of a night on the gay ‘scene’. Will and Phil drink, dance and meet several gay ‘types’, including a Brazilian bodybuilder. He discovers Arthur, who has been working for his brother Harold, in the bathroom and attempts to have sex with him. Arthur is obviously quite upset, and they part ways. At the match, Will meets Bill: a man he knows from the Corry. Bill is a weightlifter; a large muscular man who coaches teenage boxers. Trapped inside his body, Bill seems a fearful man. He is devoted to Nantwich, his patron, and to the boys he coaches. He is also carrying a torch for Phil. Danny is chasing dreams of becoming an Olympic swimmer. When he misses his chance, he seethes with shame. Swimming here is a love-hate affair with the water: when it’s willing to have you, it’s transformational, but when it is against you, it’s devastating.