This book felt like a story for our time!
The characters are brought together by the threatened closure of the public lido and focuses on the lives of Kate and Rosemary who, despite their 60 year age difference, form a close friendship. The Lido is a lifelong companion that helps Rosemary remember the past, living through the war and her relationship with her beloved husband and campaigning to save it gives her a new sense of purpose and forces her out of her comfort zone.
Despite living and working in a busy city Kate feels very much alone but a challenge to swim in the Lido opens up new avenues and relationships in her life. The story goes back and forth in time and takes in a diverse community of people and events. It deals with the issues of planning developments, the financial pressures that influence council and business decisions, and a lack of community and communication that many people feel in a big city and the things that bring a community together. I fell for this book after a couple of chapters and it didn’t let me down as it carried on. A major event towards the end is not spelled out and it is left to the reader to realise what has happened. The author seems to have face a number of the issues portrayed by the younger lead character and I am sure this would make for a good conversation on the radio. Do read this
book, it is not a “worthy” book but the underlying themes are important for our society today and it is very engagingly written.

I found this book a bit slow paced. The scene however was set nicely and the characters were great. It was a nice book of friendship and community. It was just missing something.

Enjoyed this book, a nice gentle paced story, centred in Brixton, London. It is a tale of community and friendship.