{"product_id":"pondlife","title":"Pondlife","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003eFrom the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Savage God\u003c\/i\u003e, a unique memoir of growing old, and a lesson in not going gently into that good night\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe  ponds of Hampstead Heath are small oases; fragments of wild nature  nestled in the heart of north-west London. For the best part of his life  Al Alvarez – poet, critic, novelist, rock-climber and poker player –  has swum in them almost daily. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn athlete in his youth, Alvarez chronicles what it is to grow old with humour and  fierce honesty – from his relentlessly nagging ankle which makes daily  life a struggle, to infuriating bureaucratic battles with the 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs Alvarez swims in the ponds he considers how it feels  when you begin to miss that 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 not yet beaten. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy turns funny, poetic and indignant, \u003ci\u003ePondlife\u003c\/i\u003e  is a meditation on love, the importance of life’s small pleasures and,  above all, a lesson in not going gently in to that good night.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e_____________________\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A beautiful unfolding of a story, told in deceptively simple prose but with a great power to move'' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''The adrenalin still flows in lively extracts'' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A marvellous book... it has no business to be as invigorating and absorbing – its success is against the odds'' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57321343713662,"sku":"NW9781408841020","price":12.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781408841020.jpg?v=1778694344","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/en-eu\/products\/pondlife","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}