'The cold water has given me the key to unlock myself within a place I didn't know existed: the community of cold-water swimmers right around the world. What binds us all together is the cold and how it makes us feel: brave enough to tackle even the toughest of life's issues.' Having been a keen runner and cyclist all her life, in 2017 Sara Barnes was diagnosed with severe osteoarthritis and found herself facing major surgery and a future of limited mobility. Rather than obsessing about what she could no longer do, she decided to focus on what she could do and took to the water of the tarns, river pools and lakes in her home county of Cumbria. A new appreciation of being in nature and love of cold-water swimming and immersion was born. In The Cold Fix, Sara takes the reader on an enthralling journey, from her first tentative steps into the water, to meeting other swimmers from around the world who share her passion and who can help her answer the question: what is it about cold water that proves irresistible to an increasing number of people?

An uplifting and meditative novel on friendship, the healing power of nature and how we should all embrace and re-imagine the winter of our lives as the time of our lives! She was the only human being down at the lake. Elbows, in need of a slather of moisturiser, pointed at the clouds; breasts, lifted to pre-children perkiness; baby belly stretched and flattened. She stretched her arms out wide as she started to walk barefoot into the lake. Peering down into the clear water, she pulled down her goggles. It was time to plunge forwards, succumbing to the embrace of the water. It was as if she were flying. For friends Stevie, Holly and Angela, the last few years haven't been kind. With marriage breakdowns and sacrifices, their only moments of peace come when they are outside in the wild waters of the Lake District. Now it's time for these three women to love themselves, just as they love the cold, and take charge of their own happiness in this uplifting and meditative novel of friendship and the healing power of nature.