Meet Laura Hall

Laura Hall is an award-winning author, travel writer and journalist based in Copenhagen. Her new book, The Year I Lay My Head In Water, is out now

Tell us about your new book and why we will love it?

In Iceland, they say that when you need to think deeply and find a new perspective on life, you should lay your head in water. In 2021, I needed that new perspective. I was drowning at work and hovering on the edge of burnout. One day I just quit. I decided that life was too short to spend in meetings and answering emails. A little bit of me felt that if I carried on doing it for even one more day, I would dissolve completely.

I decided to recuperate by spending a year doing the three things that I loved doing best: swimming, travelling in Scandinavia, and meeting new people. This book is an adventure that stretches across Scandinavia from Copenhagen to Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Greenland, dipping with local people, talking to adventurous swimmers and gaining an understanding of what it means to build a life that makes you happy. It’s also, in a tiny way, a love letter to the sea, and particularly to the cold seas of Scandinavia.

What is your relationship with swimming?

I was born with a view of the sea in Brighton to a mum who loves swimming, so you could say it’s in my blood. My grandmother on that side was a champion swimmer back in her day, and we spent family holidays splashing about with her in the cold North Sea in Suffolk, and our other grandparents in Eastbourne. These days it goes beyond fun: swimming is an important pillar in my life. I find that if a week goes by when I haven’t got my costume wet, I become sullen and grumpy. I never regret a swim; but I regret it if I’ve become too busy to swim.

How does swimming inspire your writing?

I find swimming therapeutic, reflective, and an incredible form of meditation. Swimming outdoors in the cold harbour in Copenhagen helps me clear away my stress, find an inner confidence and sharpen my focus.

I find that ideas iron themselves out when I’m swimming and sometimes, if I’m lucky, lines that really sing can emerge when I’m doing laps. The last sentence of this book did, and it was a gift. I had to get out of the pool immediately, dry off quickly and write it down before I forgot.

Where is your favourite place to swim?

I had an unforgettable swim in Greenland when I was researching for this book. I was lucky enough to visit an island in the south of the country called Uunartoq, where there is a hot spring and the most beautiful white sand beach I’ve seen in my life. If it wasn’t for the cold temperatures, it could have been in the Caribbean. I swam in this terribly cold water twice, watching icebergs float past, jogging on the soft sand to warm up in between. Then I ran up the hill to the natural hot pool and sank into it to warm up. It was so good, the buzz lasted for days. On the boat ride back, I saw a whale in the water where I’d just swum. It was the perfect swim.

Can you tell us about another creative project?

Someone told me that writing a memoir was a gateway into writing fiction – a lot of writers start there and then write a novel. I’m one of them. I’ve just finished writing a novel set in Manchester in the late 90s about three 20-somethings trying to come to terms with a teenage tragedy. It’s a story about guilt, grief and friendship, and it looks at what it means to grow up. There’s no swimming in it, sadly, but the swimming has helped with the writing process.

Laura Hall’s new book ‘The Year I Lay My Head In Water’ is out now