Writer Roger Deakin belonged to the lucky generation, who missed national service and rejoiced in 1960s freedom. By Patrick Barkham
The train that carried Roger Deakin from London to his Suffolk farmhouse passed his four small fields before stopping at Diss station, five miles north. With his advertising executive’s gift for persuasion, Roger persuaded the driver to slow down on the fast straight outside his home, so he could hop off at his own personal request stop. Like so many of his generation, Roger made the most of his freedoms. He is best known today for Waterlog, an entrancing account of swimming via rivers, lakes and lidos through Britain, beginning in the spring-fed ‘moat’ beside his house. Published in 1999, it has become a nature-writing classic, and a compelling assertion of the individual’s freedom to swim in Britain’s (often private) rivers. Roger would’ve been 80 this year; he died of a brain tumour in 2006. He was a notable member of a memorable generation who missed national service by months...
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