At the Pond Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies' Pond

A lovely, leisurely collection of essays about the joys of the Hampstead Heath ladies’ pond (and filled with tender details about living in London more generally). The essays are pleasantly varied in voice and topic; there are writers I love (Jessica J. Lee, Nina Mingya Powles, Leanne Shapton, Lou Stoppard) and writers I discovered through this book (Ava Wong Davies, Nell Frizzell, Eli Goldstone, Deborah Moggach). Lots of beautiful meditations on aging with joy and gratitude, the serenity of being unselfconscious and physically present in your body in women’s spaces, the thrilling shock of entering cold water…