Patrick Macrory describes himself as keen but not particular skilled in photography. Ten years ago he was taking photos of two of his grandchildren in a water park in Oregon, and as an experiment, he took a few photos of a fountain at very high speed (1/4000th) and with a long focal length (400mm) (the first two can be found in this book). He was surprised and pleased by the results, and since then has been taking photos of fountains whenever he could. Some of his best are in this book, each accompanied by quotations about water by authors and poets throughout the ages, ranging from Heraclitus to Conan Doyle to Philip Larkin to Yoko Ono.