Speaker supper » Speaker supper - A Boy in the Water

A Boy in the Water

Tom Gregory will be visiting Emsworth Sailing Club to speak to us about his childhood experience of swimming the Channel.

As a young boy growing up in South East London in the 1980s, Tom Gregory was pretty much scared of everything. Then he learned to swim and it all changed.

Suddenly he found himself being good at something - becoming braver, stronger, making friends, leaving home for the first time and facing the challenge of his life: to become, aged just eleven, the youngest person ever to swim the English Channel. A remarkable feat for anyone let alone an eleven-year-old!

Tom will be speaking to us about the act of endurance that would shape and mark him for the rest of his life. It is a tale of incredible grit and determination, and finding out what you are capable of.

Tom's fascinating book about his experience was a Radio 4 book of the week as well as winner of the 2018 William Hill sports book of the year award.

'A fascinating story full of innocence, achievement, ambition and trust' Dame Ellen MacArthur

Followed by supper of Coq au vin, vanilla cheesecake

Tide times

Tide data for ChichesterHarbourEntrance