Saturday Rave: Fat Boy Swim by Catherine Forde.

Books let you enjoy the things you hate doing. You get the experience, you see, without the effort.

Fat Boy Swim...well, it's about a fat boy who begins to swim. It's a good title that way.

It's also very funny, and gloriously well written. I loved it, and I'm the sort of person who loves sport so much that, with the main Olympic site less than twenty five miles from my house, I'm making plans for spending my free time for the next fortnight painting a picture.

As it happens, Fat Boy Swim starts, not with swimming, but with a soccer game:

He only shuffled a few steps, each one making his thick flesh judder. The impact of his foot hitting the ground had him wheezing like an old accordion.

It was hopeless.  Pointless. Jimmy halted, Leaned forward, hands on knees.

Gasping.

Knackered.

Great, isn't it? And not only do we see Jimmy starting to swim, but we discover that he's surrounded by secrets, too.

Word To Use Today: swim. This word comes from the Old English swimman. It's related to the Gothic swumsi, which means pool, and the Norwegian svamla, to paddle.