Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis

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A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week

Magnificent Guardian

Remarkable A compact classic! Bill McKibben

I learned something new and found something amazing on every page Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See
Fens, bogs, swamps and marine estuaries are the earths most desirable and dependable resources. Here, Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx brings her witness and research to the vitally important role they play in preserving the environment, and their systemic destruction in the pursuit of profit. Travelling from the fens of sixteenth-century England to Americas Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Fen, Bog and Swamp is both a revelatory history and an urgent plea for wetland reclamation, from one of our greatest prose stylists.

A rousing call to action Esquire

Sparklingly furious it has a profoundly positive message Richard Mabey, Telegraph

This haunting tribute is a pleasure to read Financial Times

Reviews

Proulx wants us to see the loss of wetlands and to appreciate the beauty in these swampy and often stinking places. Boy, does she succeed. The prose is just magnificent, bringing to life hitherto overlooked habitats Guardian

Proulxs book is truly peat-ish: layered, learned, feisty, wildly discursive, and most certainly undulating, dreaming [and] philosophising Richard Mabey, Telegraph

A haunting tribute to the worlds peatlands Proulxs poetic description of these places, and peat itself, is a pleasure to read Financial Times

This sobering history of our worlds rich wetlands explains the chilling ecological consequences of their destruction New York Times Book Review

An enchanting work of nature writing Esquire

Delves into the history of peatland destruction and its role in the climate crisis Proulx uses nimble prose to knit together scientific facts, personal experiences, and literary references while deciphering the nomenclature of these three subtly diverse wetlands which collectively hold the key to human history Vogue

A fierce declaration of peats importance to climate stability and human survival New York Review of Books

[Proulxs] astute and impassioned examinations of all kinds of wetlands show a new side of the novelist we thought we knew Los Angeles Times

So often feared, dredged and drained, swamps, bogs and fens (it turns out) are just as vital to our species survival on this planet as healthy forests and oceans perhaps more so. Proulx has written a moving elegy and cri de coeur for our worlds wetlands Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See

Annie Proulx is, as ever, remarkable her mind, her heart and her learning take us on an unforgettable and unflinching tour of past and present Bill McKibben

Author Bio

Annie Proulx published her first novel Postcards in 1991 at the age of 56. She is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News, the acclaimed novels Accordion Crimes and That Old Ace in the Hole, and the bestselling short story collection, Close Range.