The ponds of Hampstead Heath are small oases; fragments of wild nature nestled i
n the heart of north-west London. For the best part of his life Al Alvarez - poe
t, critic, novelist, rock-climber and poker player - has swum in them almost dai
ly. An athlete in his youth, Alvarez, now in his eighties, chronicles what it is
to grow old with humour and fierce honesty - from his relentlessly nagging ankl
e which makes daily life a struggle, to infuriating bureaucratic battles with th
e council to keep his disabled person's Blue Badge, the devastating effects of a
stroke, and the salvation he finds in the three Ss - Swimming, Sex and Sleep.As
Alvarez swims in the ponds he considers how it feels when you begin to miss tha
t person you used to be - to miss yourself. Swimming is his own private form of
protest against the onslaught of time; proof to others, and himself, that he's n
ot yet beaten. By turns funny, poetic and indignant, "Pondlife" is a meditation
on love, the importance of life's small pleasures and, above all, a lesson in no
t going gently in to that good night.
