During the pandemic, Annie Proulx studied, researched and wrote essays on the destruction of the peatlands and what it means for the health of the environment and ultimately the future of all life on earth. These essays, often quite personal in nature, have been expanded into this short book.

So much of this destruction was decided upon before any of us were born. As Annie says, 'Wetlands are classified by the values of what-use-are-they-to-humans.' So often wetlands are sacrificed with the excuse to create more needed farmland to feed the ever-increasing human population, but we only have to look around us to see that existing good farmland is being gobbled up and covered over with massive warehouses for shipping--to fit the desires of entrepreneurial humans rather than the health of the planet.

There are no answers here but many interesting details and past history and perhaps a few hopeful signs in the form of reclamation projects to restore some of the fens, bogs and swamps of the world before it is too late.

I received an arc of this important new work of environmental nonfiction from the author and publisher via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

This is a short book about various types of wetlands and what their destruction (by humans) means to the environment. Annie Proulx is a great writer. I'd read anything she decided to write about, but I happen to like science and books about the environment, so this was right up my alley. It's almost like a passion project by someone who is clearly stellar at doing research. It's very readable. It definitely kept my attention.

Go get this one. First of all - it’s Annie Proulx - and we all know what an incredible author she is. Secondly - Proulx brings together current facts and history and stories to discuss climate change and the impacts in a way that is a springboard for conversation. Great for a book club discussion group! Thanks to Scribner for the advanced copy. Loved it.

This was an enjoyable exploration of these important wetlands for our current existence and how they have evolved over time. As someone who has traveled to multiple spots that fit the description of either fen, bog, or swamp, this book provided a greater insight into these unique areas.

Really interesting topic with great descriptions by a well known author. Very timely topic too! I struggled with text layout (so cramped) so I have not yet finished the book but will keep at it. Anyone interested in science, nature and accelerated climate change now threatening Earth will gain a deeper understanding of how very important these natural wetlands are and why they should not be disturbed except to preserve or rebuild them.

A rich, detailed and thoughtful study of an environmental crisis. Annie Proulx brings her masterful pen to a challenging and important situation. Recommended.

Many thanks to Scribner and to Netgalley for the opportunity and pleasure of an early read.

Annie Proulx brings her careful, poetic style to the often overlooked but environmentally critical wetland ecosystems around our globe. Part history, part science with the occasional feel of a travelogue, Proulx walks through how humans have coexisted with bogs and swamps in the past, how we decided they needed to be drained and filled in, and the slow-moving effort to restore some of them to their former glory. It's an important book in an era of escalating climate change, and a sort of quiet love letter to environments that often don't get their full due, even today.

The subtitle of this book is: A short history of peatland destruction and its role in the climate crisis, and I feel like that is a very accurate description of this book. There is an immense amount of information in this book about peatland destruction and the climate crisis. I’ve read Annie Proulx’s fiction and very much enjoyed her writing style, so I was looking forward to reading this nonfiction work. However, I struggled to find my way into this book. It felt like the writing jumped around too much. Proulx’s writing in this book is very negative and her sense of frustration was evident. Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Annie Proulx has introduced us to an environmental crisis that is happening right before our eyes. Approximately 43% of threatened or endangered species in the United States live in or depend on wetlands such as a fen, bog or swamp. Proulx writes: "As humans have multiplied to a scary point of concern about the carrying capacity of the earth, wetlands were drained and dried for agriculture and housing." Each of the three areas are in immediate danger as an acceleration of climate change destroys these unique wetlands. Proulx offers detailed historical research dating back to Julius Caesar in 44 BC, including extensive literature studies, which will open the eyes of the reader to what's truly to come in the future. She also offers hope from the many environmentalists, such as the Nature Conservancy, who are restoring these areas that have taken thousands of years to build up and grow.

This non-fiction book by acclaimed author Annie Proulx is her heartbreaking swan song to the death of the fens, bogs, and swamps that nurtured all life on earth and which seem destined to disappear from our besieged planet. She traces the geomorphological origin of each landform, its importance to the development of human society and local culture, and then details how modern society has destroyed the very thing that allowed us to flourish in situ in the first place. The cultural history of specific areas was very interesting (I had never heard of Doggerland), and I loved learning about the geomorphological development of each landform. While she includes as tiny glimmers of hope the attempts around the world to save areas of intact bog or swamp, or efforts to re-create natural landforms, the overall tone is very depressing. It's hypnotic and depressing at the same time. Beautifully written and achingly despairing and heartbreaking. I rank it right up there with Rachel Carson's writings. Highly recommended.

Fen, Bog and Swamp is an impassioned exposition about peatland destruction and its impact on the climate crisis by Annie Proulx. Due out 27th Sept 2022 from Macmillan on their Scribner imprint, it's 208 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This memoir/essay/rumination on wetlands in the larger sphere of habitat and climate destruction and loss of species diversity is pervasively tinged with melancholy. The writing is, as expected, brilliant and lyrical, sometimes sublime, but it's just so very sad.

The author does, in fact, turn her prodigious intellect toward history, anthropology, earth and climate sciences, and allied subjects. The takeaway I was left with, however, was a dystopian "the planet's on fire, so DO something"! The problem with that is of course, that individuals, even collectively can't make a substantive difference and the corporations, politicians, and industrial concerns either dither or (worse) are actively trying to dig faster to suck up the very last resources.

Four stars. Beautifully written but overwhelmingly distressing.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

The opening to this collection wrapped me in the golden glow of nostalgia from a childhood spent immersed in coastal nature then slammed me into the hard truth of climate change. The subsequent chapters on fens, bogs, and swamps kept me mesmerized. Annie Proulx delivers a brilliant mix of biology, ecology, archeology, and history intertwined with literary musings. I enjoyed this deep dive into a topic that clearly fascinated her on multiple levels and appreciate the light she has focused on such a unique and critical biome.

Annie Proulx turns her attention to nature with the same skills she brought to past works. It might not be for everyone but I love a well written book about the world around us.

Like many authors' "pandemic" books, I'm having a hard time reviewing this one. Proulx states in the introduction that this was originally a personal essay that grew and grew into the small book that it is, as she researched and reflected, and continued writing. In it, she traces what has happened to the natural world in her 86 year lifetime through the lens of fens (mostly English), bogs (mostly North American), and swamps (mostly in the northernmost part of the South). She doesn't seem to have spent much time in Louisiana, the Houston area, southern Alabama, or Florida...which is where the book kind of breaks down: while the Fens portion is thoroughly researched (it takes 10,000 for peat to form in the UK), the section on Swamp lacks the same attention to detail, barring historical notes about George Washington and various instances of swampland being drained to build on.

Use of the generalized "we" <i>always</i> bugs me, even when I agree with the statement in which it's invoked, Another thing that annoys me is her use of a quote from Marie Araña's <cite>Conquistadores</cite> indicting a core group of conquistadors who invaded what became the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the first half of the 16th century. She blames them for the "rape of the land" culture perpetuated by western corporations, as if the British East India Company, Hudson Bay Company, etc. didn't exist. I am the last person to exonerate the conquerors of the Americas (including the Church) for their atrocities, but it's a tall order to blame the greed of a handful of poor soldiers from western Spain for 500 years of 2 continents' history.

The strength of this volume is in its assiduous attention to detail: that the world's peatlands occupy 3% of the Earth's surface, which is more than the Amazon region. That the UK has destroyed 99% of its premodern wetlands. That the world's wetlands are a better canary in the coalmine than anything, in terms of extinction. When wetlands go, other things (like forests, fertile land, etc) fall in their wake.

Proulx goes slightly mystical, or else gives a shout-out to Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, when she invokes Alexander Pope's <i>genius loci</i> to describe the particular environs of fens, bog, and swampland. She grew up playing in wetlands, she shares many memories of the many species of birds, fish, amphibians, etc., that she watched as a child, and it's very clear that the destruction of wetlands feels like a harbinger of doom to her. As a child I often went camping near a protected coastal estuary and have fond memories of tromping through mudflats with herons, cranes, and flamingos. I don't know if they're still there, but I hope so.

Anyway, Proulx's takeaway is "save the planet already!" This is not super helpful in terms of specific action. I had already made a decision to stop using peat-based potting mix in my houseplants and garden, as it's nonrenewable and, uh, peat locks carbon into the ground, so mining it begins with a vast carbon footprint, and that;s before it's even been loaded into a truck to haul away. The trouble is, saving the planet's ecosystem is by and large a corporate and governmental level problem. That puts solutions in the hands of activists and activist-stockholders, who then must lobby against an opposition funded by billionaires.

Solving THAT conundrum is another book entirely, but perhaps an octogenarian's frustrated nostalgia will make a difference after all.

I was really looking forward to an accomplished writer telling me about fens, bogs, and swamps. Yes, I expected some bad environmental/ecological news. But what I did not expect was a rant. Everything has been destroyed, destroyed, destroyed, destroyed. This is not a book about fens, bogs and swamps. It is a book about environmental rage. I read 11% of the book and learned so little about the subjects of the title I gave it up.