Kate Rew is a passionate creative who has helped spearhead an international resurgence of swimming in lakes, rivers and seas. Born on a Devon farm, she began river swimming when she was young, and established The Outdoor Swimming Society (The OSS) in the most carefree of ways in 2006 – as a stunt organisation that ‘gave people permission’ to swim through landscapes where they no longer felt safe or able to swim in. (The joke of it being that the permission was not really hers to give). The OSS now attracts hundreds of thousands of followers to its channels every year, and has a small volunteer family of doers, adventurers, writers, thinkers, campaigners, scientists and photographers at the helm.
Kate is a graduate of Philosophy & Psychology at the University of Oxford, where she rowed in the Blue Boat. A lifelong advocate for self-reliance, freedom, adventure, and joy, in her early career Kate was one of the first freelance journalists to establish health as a specialism, writing about nutrition, medicine, alternative health, psychology and fitness for The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Evening Standard, Observer and women’s and fitness titles. Since then, she is particularly proud of creating one book (Wild Swim, Guardian Books, 2008), two sons, three iconic open water events (Dart10k, Swoosh and Hurly Burly), The OSS community and an enjoyable side-line as a travel writer. Kate received an award for her ‘stalwart contributions’ to recreational swimming from the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2016 and was part of The Economist’s 1843 Magazine Travel Media Award win in 2019.
Kate's latest book, The Outdoor Swimmers' Handbook, was published this year by Penguin Random House.
Agent: Patrick Walsh
