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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Emma Brockes

Digested week: ‘Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water … ’ but this time, it’s real

Family of four on sand at seashore
A beach scene at the English seaside from the Channel 4 docudrama Dirty Business. Photograph: Rob Baker Ashton/Channel 4

Monday

Since I was a child I’ve been going to the same beach on the south coast and never given a second thought to its safety. Swimming in the US, you have the occasional panic about sharks. In South Africa I got stung by a jellyfish. But the English seaside, give or take the odd riptide and the constant threat of hypothermia, has always seemed benign in its outlook, a dull, unthreatening sea.

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