A prize-winning and beautifully written memoir by the first Black woman to swim for Great Britain that reflects on race, identity, trauma and power with visceral vulnerability

WINNER OF THE CHARLES TYRWHITT SPORTS BOOK AWARDS
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HATCHARDS AND BIOGRAPHERS' CLUB FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE

'Poetic, candid and utterly compelling' - FREYA BROMLEY
'Absolutely remarkable' - LYNN BARBER
'Reads with the tension of a thriller, illuminating the world of elite sport' - CATHY RENTZENBRINK
'An embodied water odyssey' - LIDIA YUKNAVITCH

This is not a story about making history.

Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell was once a double British Champion and the first Black woman ever to swim for Great Britain. As her body and mind are sharpened through gruelling training, press scrutiny and the harshness of adolescence, Rebecca charts her career's ascent and her singular love of the water, before explaining why she walked away from it all.

A compulsive and unforgettable study of intensity, These Heavy Black Bones meditates on Blackness, identity and the ecstasy of peak physical performance, and lays bare the pressures within the swimming world.