Brave and Bold: 100 Years of the Ladies’ Pond on Hampstead Heath (in All Weathers)

— —

Nell Frizzell The Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association

Brave and Bold

Name: Brave and Bold
Price: 36.99 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9780008797393

100 Years of the Ladies’ Pond on Hampstead Heath (in All Weathers)

Nell Frizzell, The Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association, Esther Freud

$36.99

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We will update you on expected arrival time to us. If this delay is too long, please let us know within 2 business days and we can give you options regarding cancelling or adjusting your order. More details on cancelling your order can be found in our Terms of Trade.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Mudlark
07 May 2026

Social & cultural history; Social groups; Gender studies: women; Sociology: sport & leisure; Water sports & recreations

A hundred years. Thousands of women. One extraordinary pond.

I have learned about peacocks and terrapins, giant cobras and booming widgeons; I have heard about celebrity spottings and al-fresco lovemaking and digestive biscuits. These things make up the history of the Ladies’ Pond, but they also give us an insight into a hundred years of women’s lives.

From code breakers to cake bakers, I have learned that there is no such thing as a ‘normal woman’; and over the last hundred years the Pond has played host to thousands of remarkable people.

For a century, the Ladies’ Pond on Hampstead Heath has welcomed women from every walk of life: artists and activists, swimmers and sunbathers, friends and free spirits. As Britain’s most famous female open-air swimming spot, a pocket of wildness tucked away in the middle of the city, it has long attracted adventurous swimmers from all over the UK and the wider world.

Brave and Bold celebrates one hundred years of this beloved London landmark through the rhythm of a single swimming year, from frozen Januarys to sun-drenched midsummers; through friendships, feminist activism and the exhilaration of open water.

Created in collaboration with the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association and rich with previously unseen archive material and new interviews – from Dolly Alderton and Amy Liptrot to lifelong swimmers of every era – this is far more than the story of one pond. It’s a story of community, women and wild water across a century of social and political change, from suffragettes to soap stars, war to liberation, and shared flasks of tea to acts of quiet rebellion.

Brave and Bold is both a love letter to Hampstead Heath and to every woman who has ever felt most at home bobbing about in open water.

By: Nell Frizzell
With: The Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association
Foreword by: Esther Freud
Imprint: Mudlark
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 222mm, Width: 141mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 440g
ISBN: 9780008797393
ISBN 10: 0008797390
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 07 May 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Nell Frizzell is an acclaimed journalist and author who, as a former lifeguard and regular swimmer, has a deep personal connection to the Ladies' Pond. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, Sunday Times, Elle and Vogue, and she is the author of the critically acclaimed The Panic Years and Holding the Baby. When not writing or swimming, Nell enjoys exploring the outdoors, making clothes, her allotment and the company of women. She lives in Oxford, in a very small house full of pasta and bedding and bikes.

Reviews for Brave and Bold: 100 Years of the Ladies’ Pond on Hampstead Heath (in All Weathers)

'[Nell] has an easy, breezy, meandering style and writes evocatively of how it feels to swim in nature, through the weeds and with the ducks and kingfishers about you.'Literary Review