Wow! eBook
Fenland Nature
Author(s): Simon Stirrup (Author), Duncan Poyser (Author)
- Publisher: Pelagic
- Publication Date: September 30, 2025
- Language: English
- Print length: 376 pages
- ISBN-10: 1784274100
- ISBN-13: 9781784274108
Book Description
This book showcases the natural history and landscape of the Fens, an area now responsible for a third of Britain’s food production and worth over £3 billion to the economy every year. It describes the geology and geography across the Fenland Basin over the last 14,000 years, a period dominated by the flux of wetlands and movement of water. The human relationship with this landscape is traced through history: from Mesolithic hunters to the prosperity of a medieval economy based on the currency of eels, through the taming and draining of the vast wetlands, to modern farming on an industrial scale.
While recognising that only a fraction of the Fens is left,
Fenland Nature celebrates the breadth of wildlife still to be found in the region, from vast flocks of visiting wildfowl in the winter months, to rare and specialised plants and insects – all illustrated with detailed and evocative photographs.The book concludes by contemplating an uncertain future where there are possibilities for a sustainable agricultural industry alongside increasing biodiversity, requiring new ways of thinking and working with the land. The fenland landscape is a microcosm of the huge global challenges caused by habitat loss, ecological degradation and climate change. If solutions can be found to these complex issues in the Fens, then there is hope that these can also apply to similar places across the world.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Simon Stirrup lives in Aldreth on the edge of the Fens with his wife and son. He is recently retired, having previously worked as a functional consultant for a large computer company. With a degree in zoology, he has been a keen birdwatcher and wildlife enthusiast all his life. Duncan Poyser has lived in the Fens for close to 20 years. Graduating in field biology and habitat management, he continued to study, gaining a PGCE before embarking upon a career in education. He is now Director of Complex Needs for the Staploe Education Trust. He has also worked as an environmental consultant.
