Becky's Great Book Reviews The Lido by Libby Page

This is a story about a city pool except it isn't. It's a story about community and connectedness in the heart of London. Libby Page hits the nail on the head with the tone of The Lido, finding the perfect spot between sentimentality and determinism.

Rosemary has been coming to the lido (a British word for municipal pool) for eighty years. She swam there as a girl during the second world war; met her beloved husband George at the lido and became engaged poolside; and alleviated her loneliness after his death by swimming amongst the regulars every day. It's an accessible oasis in the community of Brixton (an area within London), a way to bring people together in a huge metropolis. The metropolis becomes tiny at the lido.

Now, during Rosemary's eighty-sixth year, the Lido is set to close. A luxury high rise is offering the city council a lot of money to buy it, and they want to turn the lido into a tennis court, a private club for the rich.

Kate is a twenty-something who feels anxious and lost in London. She struggles with loneliness; even surrounded by thousands of people. Her panic attacks are almost debilitating. Kate is also a journalist. When she is asked to do a story about the lido, Kate rediscovers herself through her budding friendship with Rosemary and her now daily swims, brought about by Rosemary.

Together the women, along with a ragtag group of locals, join forces to save their lido and with it, the hub and beating heart of Brixton. As Rosemary puts it in a last-ditch campaign to save the lido, "It's somewhere to escape to without having to leave your own community. It takes the threat of a closure for people to realize just how special a place is."

A story of friendship, commonality, romance and love unfolds in this beautifully told novel. Sweet and uplifting, The Lido by Libby Page gets five stars out of five from me.