Mornings with Rosemary - by Libby Page (Paperback)

About the Book

"Kate is a twenty-six-year-old riddled with anxiety and panic attacks who works for a local paper in Brixton, London, covering forgettably small stories. When she's assigned to write about the closing of the local lido (an outdoor pool and recreation center), she meets Rosemary, an eighty-six-year-old widow who has swum at the lido daily since it opened its doors when she was a child ... When a local developer attempts to buy the lido for a posh new apartment complex, Rosemary's fond memories and sense of community are under threat. As Kate dives deeper into the lido's history--with the help of a charming photographer--she pieces together a portrait of the pool, and a portrait of a singular woman"--

Book Synopsis

The internationally bestselling debut about intergenerational friendship, community, and love--featuring the life-changing relationship between an anxious young reporter and an eighty-six-year-old lifelong swimmer that "follows in the footsteps of the enormously popular A Man Called Ove...charming and heartwarming" (Kirkus Reviews).We're never too old to make new friends--or make a difference. Rosemary Peterson has lived in Brixton, London, all her life, but everything is changing. The library where she used to work has closed. The family grocery store has become a trendy bar. And now the lido, an outdoor pool where she's swum daily since its opening, is threatened with closure by a local housing developer. It was at the lido that Rosemary escaped the devastation of World War II; here she fell in love with her husband, George; here she found community during her marriage and since George's death. Twentysomething Kate Matthews has moved to Brixton and feels desperately alone. A once-promising writer, she now covers forgettable stories for her local paper. That is, until she's assigned to write about the lido's closing. Soon Kate's portrait of the pool focuses on a singular woman: Rosemary. And as Rosemary slowly opens up to Kate, both women are nourished and transformed in ways they never thought possible. "Charming [and] an unusually poignant tale of married love" (The Washington Post), Mornings with Rosemary is a feel-good contemporary novel that captures the heart and spirit of a community across generations--an irresistible tale of love, loss, aging, and friendship. *Originally published as The Lido