Kate is a twenty-six-year-old riddled with anxiety and panic attacks who works for a local paper in Brixton, London, covering forgettably small stories. When she's assigned to write about the closing of the local lido (an outdoor pool and recreation centre), she meets Rosemary, an eighty-six-year-old widow who has swum at the lido daily since it opened its doors when she was a child. It was here Rosemary fell in love with her husband, George; here that she's found communion during her marriage and since George's death. The lido has been a cornerstone in nearly every part of Rosemary's life.
But when a local developer attempts to buy the lido for a posh new apartment complex, Rosemary's fond memories and sense of community are under threat.
As Kate dives deeper intothe lido's history-with the help of a charming photographer-she pieces togethera portrait of the pool, and a portrait of a singular woman, Rosemary. Whatbegins as a simple local interest story for Kate soon blossoms into a beautifulfriendship that provides sustenance to both women as they galvanize thecommunity to fight the lido's closure. Meanwhile, Rosemary slowly, finally,begins to open up to Kate, transforming them both in ways they never knewpossible.
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[Step out of Brixton underground station and it is acarnival of steel drums, the white noise of traffic and that man on the cornershouting, 'God love you', even to the unlovable]***
(Orion,19 April 2018, 348 pages, ebook, copy from publisher via NetGalley andvoluntarily reviewed]
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This is the author's debut. I can't wait to seewhat she writes next. I really liked Kate's character. She's easy to relate to.I have experienced the anxiety she feels moving to a new city where she doesn'tknow anyone and is swamped by loneliness. The author does a great job ofconveying how she feels. I could sympathise with her and wanted her to find herfeet in South London. I loved the friendship that develops between Kate andRosemary, an eighty-six year old woman whose been coming to the pool, nowthreatened with closure, for almost eighty years. I loved the way Kate reallytakes on the cause of joining protests to save the pool. You, go girl. TheLido made my insides go all marshmallowy and gooey. Trust me, this is good.What a life-affirming, heart-warming book.
