Hilary Tailor sets novel at Kenwood Ladies Pond on the Heath

Where Water Lies is set at the famous Kenwood Ladies' Pond on Hampstead Heath, and the mum-of-two reluctantly became a cold water swimmer in order to write it.

Not only did she it help her finish the novel, but she's now an avid pond swimmer.

And after an agonizing 15 years between writing and publishing her first book, she now has a second two-book contract with publisher Lake Union.

"I came across the pond by accident and made a decision, on impulse, to place a character there in a novel I was writing," she says.

Mum of two Hilary Tailor set her second novel at Kenwood Ladies Pond (Image: Hilary Tailor)

"Eliza was an isolated woman. I remember pausing at my laptop, wondering what middle-aged women do in London, and I recalled a friend of mine had begun swimming at the pond.

"Half an hour later, I had Eliza, a thirty-eight-year-old loner, swimming in the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond."

Tailor, who runs a design business with her husband, submitted the manuscript to her editor - a story about a woman who 20-years earlier had experienced a friendship that went "horribly wrong," and was still struggling to come to terms with the aftermath.

When a friend comes back into her life after two decades, she turns to Pond swimming as a space to heal and forge fresh bonds.

Tailor's first novel The Vanishing Tide, was set on the Wirral Peninsula, where she grew up.

"I was surrounded by water on three sides and knew the coast intimately," she says.

"It took ages to get it published but I didn't want to self-publish, I wanted to get an agent and work collaboratively with an editor."

A board outside the Kenwood Ladies Pond (Image: Hilary Tailor)

When her editor returned the draft of her second novel to her, she asked where the water had gone.

"She said my audience liked reading about water and I was good at describing it. "'This paragraph, halfway through the manuscript, when Eliza’s in the pond. You need to expand on that,' she said."  'And by that, I mean right the way through the book.'

Tailor interviewed her pond swimming friend for background research but was reluctant to visit the pond because "it wasn’t really my thing and I didn’t like being cold".

But then in December 2021 she took the plunge and joined her friend, taking notes and talking to the group of women she swam with.

"'Just come, they said. It’s amazing', but I shook my head."

The mum of two had to wait 15 years to get her first novel published and has now got a deal to write her third and fourth. (Image: Hilary Tailor)

By spring 2022 the pond featured heavily in the novel's second draft which included plenty of research after Tailor read books and watched documentaries.

"I began to feel like a fraud for writing about something I hadn’t experienced first-hand. I firmed up my draft and knew it wasn’t good enough. So I went for my first swim in May, 2022. The water was sixteen degrees. It's a shock when you get in, I remember not being able to speak, and having to swim almost to the end of the pond before I got my breath under control.

"Until one day, the water stopped feeling cold, I began to embrace it, accept it and enjoy it. Afterwards you feel amazing. It's an incredible space in the middle of the city with herons and ducklings.

"I told myself I would stop swimming when the book was finished. I swam though my first winter and began to absorb all of those unknowable details.

"The way that the ice sung on the surface of the water; that sometimes, you climbed out with a muddy line around your chin. That I could witness the beauty of nature, and also its cruelty in the space of a minute."

While writing her third and fourth draft, Tailor swam through her second winter then finished her novel, but says: "I am still swimming."

She thinks her next book might be set in the woods.

"I have a dog and spend so much time in Queen's Wood and Highgate Woods and I like writing about nature."

Where Water Lies is now out on Amazon price £8.99. Further details at hilarytailor.com