Cold Water (Unbound)
In Cold Water, we follow lifelong outdoor swimmer, Jack Hudson, on a shuddering journey from the pandemic-stricken lidos of London to the geothermal rivers and 2-degree bays of Iceland…
Along the way, Jack reconnects with his semi-aquatic family, meets weathered ice swimmers (Colin Hill, Pedro Ordenes, Anna-Carin Nordin) and recounts some of the most famous endurance swims, like Lewis Pugh’s minus 1.7-degree kilometre at the North Pole and Lynne Cox’s crossing of the Bering Strait as the Cold War thawed. He also explores the science of exactly what happens to our bodies when submerged into cold water. While training with his brothers for some of the toughest feats that exist in this mysterious sport: the dreaded sub-5-degree Ice Km and Ice Mile.
The Machine (Kickstarter)
The Machine is a passion project 10 years in the making. It was funded in under 3 days on Kickstarter…
Enter a dying world, watched over by a lone android - Argus. This machine controls a satellite swarm at the behest of the League of Empires. While he floats strapped to a low-orbit space station and dangles over Earth, looking like a mechanical Christ. For all of his running time, he will toil as the architect of global security – the enforced surveyor of a lost species, rooted to an alien condition.
The Machine has cinematic roots, inspired by the punk filmmaking styles of writers/directors like Neil Blomkamp (Elysium) and Alex Garland (Ex Machina). This gritty dystopian travelogue will appeal broadly to lovers of the outdoors and adventure. Many scenes and characters are derived from Jack's personal experiences in countries like India, Indonesia and Iceland.
The Machine is Jack’s debut in Fiction.
Swim Wild (Yellow Kite Books)
Swim Wild tells the story of Jack, Calum and Robbie Hudson - three brothers born in Yorkshire and raised in the Lake District. Growing up they were never far from water, whether they were collecting hermit crabs in Scottish rock pools or leaping off stacks into rivers. Then they stumbled into that deathly clinch we call ‘adulthood’ and began to detach from nature and a childhood outdoors…
Juddering in city trains. Trading jaded glances with tar-stained pigeons. Drifting into a cycle of low-lit nine-to-fives. Encountering anxiety, stress and disillusionment. In time they realised what they and many of their friends were losing and decided to change their course. And so, inspired by Scottish matriarchs (the Wilds in their family), the boys plunged into a string of extreme wild swimming challenges.
After a saline baptism in the Corryvreckan maelstrom, they jumped into the peaty source of the River Eden and followed its course for nine days to its mouth at the Solway Firth. Then they crossed the world’s two strongest maelstroms: the Saltstraumen and Moskstraumen (find out more in the OSS feature Into The Maelstrom).