These Heavy Black Bones

By: Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell

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Hardcover | 27 August 2024

At a Glance

Hardcover
256 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.0 x 14.5

Hardcover

RRP $39.99

$35.40

11%OFF

Aims to ship in 5 to 10 business days

A brave and beautiful memoir written by the first Black woman to swim for Great Britain that reflects on race, identity, trauma and power with visceral vulnerability

'Poetic, candid and utterly compelling' - FREYA BROMLEY
'Absolutely remarkable' - LYNN BARBER
'Reads with the tension of a thriller, illuminating the world of elite sport, both the struggle and sacrifice' - CATHY RENTZENBRINK
'An embodied water odyssey' - LIDIA YUKNAVITCH

This is not a story about making history.

Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell was once a double British Champion and the first Black woman ever to swim for Great Britain. As her body and mind are sharpened through gruelling training, press scrutiny and the harshness of adolescence, Rebecca charts her career's ascent and her singular love of the water, before explaining why she walked away from it all.

A compulsive and unforgettable study of intensity, These Heavy Black Bones meditates on Blackness, identity and the ecstasy of peak physical performance, and lays bare the pressures within the swimming world.

Industry Reviews

'What a book! Rebecca is such an absorbing writer, These Heavy Black Bones reads with the tension of a thriller and I desperately wanted her to be okay. It both illuminates the world of elite sport, the struggle and sacrifice, but is also really broadly relatable - a tribute to the writing, of course. It was a feast in every way: for the intellect and the senses, so very visceral' - CATHY RENTZENBRINK

'Speaks about the intensity of training and the pressure of often being the only Black woman poolside' - Women's Health

'As a teenage swimmer, Ajulu-Bushell realized that being exceptional came with a cost. Struggling with the pressure she felt to succeed in a predominately white sport, she quit while training for the 2012 Olympics' - TIME

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