Testing the limits with novelist J.H. Mann

Writer J.H. Mann on the epic ocean challenge that inspired his new thriller. 

Many of my stories are set in the wonderful county of Cornwall, where truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction. I have swum and surfed there much of my life. It has always been a special place for me with its legends, soaring cliffs, rugged moors and wild seas. The landscape has a raw, mystical magic. My new novel, Hidden Depths, is a ‘wild swimming’ thriller inspired by famous real-life disappearance cases, such as the Canoe Man John Darwin and Australian businesswoman Melissa Caddick. 

The story examines the desperation and determination of Cornish mother and wife Catherine Carlyon, a former competitive swimmer, who secretly decides the only way to escape a lengthy prison sentence for fraud is to abandon her family and everything she holds dear. Hidden Depths climaxes with a gruelling swim between the Isles of Scilly and Land’s End. 

Although I am a keen open water swimmer myself, I called on the real-life experiences of swimmers Mark Richards and Vicky Middlemast to help with the swimming scenes.

An epic 28-mile swim

“They say your goals should scare you and this one certainly did!” says long-distance swimmer Mark about his attempt to conquer one of the UK’s epic sea swims, the 28-miles between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

At 2.20am on 9 September 2019, Mark became the third person – and first man – to complete the distance solo. 19 hours and 50 minutes after leaving Nanjizal, near Land’s End, he clambered ashore exhausted at Pelistry Bay, on the island of St Mary’s. 

“I knew it was going to be tough and that I would have to dig deep, deeper than I ever had before,” said Mark, an artist specialising in wave sculptures, who lives in the Cornish coastal town  of Perranporth.

The swim between Scilly and Cornwall is recognised as being among the most demanding in the UK. Strong Atlantic tides, ocean winds and the regular appearance of jellyfish all play a part in making the distance even more gruelling than its 28-mile distance would suggest. Adding spice to the challenge is the fact that the area is steeped in folklore and legend with the lost Celtic kingdom of Lyonesse said to be hidden below the waves after being consumed by the ocean in a single night.

The distance remained unconquered until 1998. Then Alison Streeter, who swam the English Channel no less than 43 times, took up the challenge, completing the Scilly to Land’s End route in 15 hours and 11 minutes.

“The expeditionary nature of the challenge appealed to me”

It took a further 16 years for there to be another success when marathon swimmer Beth French, of Milverton, near Taunton, Somerset, became the first person to complete the distance in the opposite direction, landing on the isles at about 4.30am after 17 hours and 28 minutes. 

Beth said: “The expeditionary nature of the challenge appealed to me. I like testing myself to the limit on something new, seeing what’s possible, being the best that I can be. It was a real adventure. With the strength of the tides and the wind, I didn’t know whether swimming from Cornwall to the Isles of Scilly was even possible.  There had been a number of unsuccessful attempts by excellent swimmers.

“We calculated the swim could take 24 hours and so left Land’s End at midday thinking we would probably arrive in daylight the following day. I was confident I could swim for 24 hours because two years earlier I had taken that long to complete the 28-mile Molokai swim in Hawaii after suffering with an injured left shoulder.”

Shortly before midnight, Beth was confronted by a swarm of jellyfish which stung her more than 40 times. She described the experience as “being like a human pinball in a jellyfish machine.”

“I’d sweep my hand through the water in a stroke and come up with one in my hand, and then as my other hand went in, one would wrap round my wrist,” she said. It was a painful experience but, after a dose of antihistamine, she carried on. “Apart from the jellyfish, we were lucky with the conditions. Instead of the prevailing south westerly wind in our faces, we had a four-knot north easterly following breeze.”

The mystical appeal of the Isles of Scilly

Another formidable swimmer, Vicky Middlemast, from Sale, Greater Manchester, tackled the Scilly to Land’s End route in July 2016, having previously conquered the English Channel and the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland. 

“I wanted to challenge myself on a less well-known swim and a greater distance,” she said. “And the Isles of Scilly have a mystical appeal within the open water swimming community, stories abound of clear seas and sandy beaches. The strong currents made the swim particularly hard. At times it felt like I was barely making any progress. I was so lucky to have the support of my amazing crew on the boat who helped me keep going but after 17 and a half hours, I couldn’t push myself any further and I ended the swim, less than two miles from Land’s End.” Like Beth, Vicky faced the problem of painful stings to her arms and legs from jellyfish.

“A long swim that would test me to the limits”

Mark fixed his sights on the Land’s End to Scilly route after swimming around the coast of Cornwall, completing the 234 miles in 50 swims the previous year. Unlike Alison, Beth and Vicky, he used  a wetsuit.

“I was looking for a fresh challenge – one long swim that would test me to my limits,” he said. “I set my sights on Cornwall to the Isles of Scilly as both places are very special to me and the distance had only been completed twice before.”

He recalls the final few hours of the swim being especially demanding. “I swam on into a stiffening headwind, nervous that a forecasted blow was coming too early. I kept focusing on the next feed – my favourite was rice pudding with chopped peaches – and thinking a lot about all the people who were willing me on to get this done. As it got fully dark, the red lights on St Mary’s still seemed to be a long way away and not moving. I told myself not to think about it.

“It was a case of one step, or one swim stroke, at a time. In my mind, I held the image of Michelangelo chipping away at a massive piece of stone, just focusing on the next strike of the mallet.”

He echoed the thoughts of the other swimmers with a heartfelt thank you to his support crew. “I could never thank them all enough for their love and support, time and effort,” he said. “WE did it! I definitely couldn’t have made it without them. Each of them was totally solid and did a thousand things.”

Since Mark’s swim there have been three successful relay attempts at the distance, the most recent of which was last year when Neil Brinkworth, Amanda Holland, Mike Goodman, Lindsey Walke, Jacob Roberts and Denise Ward, of Plymouth Open Water Swimmers, set a new record for Land’s End to the islands in 13 hours and 17 minutes.

They followed a ‘Six Scilly Swimmers’ team of Sam Jones, Richard Pearce, Mark Ransom, Darren ‘George’ Maguire, Megan Sanders and Cathy Freeman-Brown, who in September 2021 completed the swim in 17 hours and 59 minutes and were the first relay team to do so without wetsuits. About two months earlier, a team of six friends from Cornwall – Alice Bane, Alex Sandbrook, Kim-Marie Jackson, Paula Bright, Tina Pascoe and Ruth Creamer – swam with wetsuits to finish in 16 hours and seven minutes.

Those who have attempted this swim show a great passion for its charms and challenges. Vicky Middlemast said: “I hope there will be lots more people in future that take on and conquer this epic swim!”

Hidden Depths by J.H. Mann is available on Amazon in paperback and ebook formats.