The story of the Fens - Valerie Gerrard

This unique part of the British Isles, where man has struggled against nature since the Ice Ages, is the subject of a remarkable book which tells the complete story in fascinating detail. Once known as the 'drowned lands' the Fens have been transformed from a flooded area with only small islands habitable throughout the year into one of the most productive and fertile regions of the country. At the heart of this reclamation, however, is the constant dramatic battle against the ever-present enemy of encroaching sea and upland water. Deeply attached to the Fens, Valerie Gerrard weaves an intricate tapestry of the history and indomitable people of the area. The charming village streets, the great parish churches and abbeys, the straight dykes, the high river-banks, the floods, the black earth of the peat fens, the special quality of light in the vast open expanses where the sky reaches down to the land, and the magnificent Ely Cathedral rising majestically out of the Fens - all this and more is lovingly described. The Story of the Fens will be of immense appeal to those who live in and visit the Fens in this the very centre of East Anglia.