We're so excited to welcome Brigid Lowe and Gilly McArthur to Rare Birds Bookshop this October to sit down and discuss their new books - Shiver: The Lessons of the Lochs & The Beauty of Cold.

Brigid's book Shiver: The Lessons of the Lochs is her own story, a story of a who woman swims her way back to sanity after her life is violently upended, by seeking to plunge into every one of Scotland's thirty thousand lochs. SHIVER is the result: a lifetime's quest, an ode to the Scottish landscape, and a siren song of the healing properties of water. Refreshment, resilience, resistance. 

Gilly's book The Beauty of Cold: The Restorative Power of Cold Water for Connection and Joy is a beautiful photographic guide to the joy of cold water and how it can boost mental and physical wellbeing at every age and stage of life. Whether you're seeking resilience, calm, community or simply the joy of being immersed in nature, The Beauty of Cold offers a life-affirming path back to yourself in simple, achievable and lasting steps. At a time when we all need to escape the noise, this is the perfect cold water antidote and allows a path to return to being more human.

Tickets are £5 and can be redeemed against any purchase on the evening of the event. 

Timings

• Doors open: 6:30pm
• Talk begins: 7:00pm 

About the authors

Brigid Lowe grew up in remote Wales of Irish parentage and now lives in Edinburgh with her children. She studied literature at Bangor, completed a doctorate at Oxford, and later lectured at Sheffield and held a fellowship at Trinity College Cambridge. She traces her descent from travellers, circus performers, mill workers and gallowglass warriors. An obsessive wild swimmer, Brigid writes out of an intense relationship with the lochs, hills and elemental beauty of Scotland. 

Her debut novel, The Bloody Branch, was published by Harvill (PRH) in January 2026. Shiver was a winner of The RSL Giles St Aubyn Award for Non-Fiction 2025, gifted to exceptional first-time writers of non-fiction.

Gilly McArthur is a cold-water swim coach and free climber from Scotland. Much of her work is tied to mental wellbeing and nature connection, and she shares her expertise with CEOs, charities, sportspeople and A-list actors. She has been profiled in National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveller and on the BBC and has featured in various award- winning films, books and publications.

If you have any questions regarding the event or to request additional accessibility accommodations please contact hello@rarebirdsbooks.com