An adventurer has written a children's book about the unforgettable time she saved a drowning cow - while dressed as a mermaid.
Writer Lindsey Cole has been hand-delivering copies of her new book the Mermaid and the Cow to customers around Bristol, standing at a safe distance on people's doorsteps and delighting children with her costume.
The 'urban mermaid' made headlines in 2018 when she swam the length of the non-tidal River Thames on a plastic-collecting mission, even rescuing a cow along the way after it got stuck in the water.
She said the experience inspired her to write her new book, which was published in December following a crowdfunding campaign.
Lindsey, who lives in Knowle, said: "This has helped to bring a bit of joy to my life and to kids - it's fun to deliver a book dressed as a mermaid.
"It was also to help me, because writing is quite a lonely life.
"I put glitter all over me so it has literally brought a bit of sparkle."
The 37-year-old said writing and illustrating the book helped to keep her occupied during the first lockdown, giving her a project to focus on as the pandemic was just starting to unfold.
For any children local to Bristol, she is offering to brighten up their lockdown by hand-delivering it while wearing her colourful mermaid tail.
On special occasions like someone’s birthday, she is even serenading them with her ukulele.
River Severn plastic mission
The keen wild swimmer hopes that when restrictions are lifted, she will be able to swim the River Severn as a mermaid, collecting plastic waste along the way.
As well as clearing the waste from the water, she is looking to find a sculptor who might be able to repurpose the rubbish into a mermaid sculpture, potentially with a coronavirus link using discarded PPE.
Even more ambitiously, she also wants to swim in the Svalbard in Arctic Norway to inspire a second book she is planning to write.
It will involve a mermaid and a polar bear and explore the theme of climate change, and she is hoping to find sponsors for the project.
It was through travelling that Lindsey developed a passion for her cause, when she was learning to free-dive in Indonesia.
She said: "On the ascent something stung my hand - I thought it was a jellyfish.
"It was actually a small piece of plastic that had scratched me, and I realised that I was surrounded by lots of tiny little bits of plastic. It made me really sad.
"At a similar time a whale washed up dead, with six kilos of plastic found inside [its stomach]."
Some free divers use mermaid-like monofins, which is what inspired her initial mermaid adventure along the Thames.
Lindsey usually visits schools to talk to children about the environment and about her experience swimming the Thames, and appears at birthday parties and festivals, but the pandemic has meant that she has had to put that on hold.
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She hopes that her book, aimed at children aged three-eight, will help to educate them in an engaging way.
The writer describes it as a "light hearted story with splashes of humour", which also delivers an important environmental message.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the plastic-tackling charity We Swim Wild, of which she is a patron.
More information about Lindsey's projects and the book can be found on her website.
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