Forgotten Fen. It’ll be on the shelf any day now

It seems to be an age since the project began but ‘Forgotten Fen’, beautifully written by Gareth Craddock and illustrated by none other than myself, should be on the shelf and ready to buy some time next week, just in time for Christmas. Nice. That comes with the proviso that it will be barring any last minute hiccups at the printer and binder but at least they are based in England. The book is being published by Medlar Press with lovely typography and design by Jon Ward-Allen. All of the details for purchase, only direct from the publisher, can be found on their website at http://www.medlarpress.com

I had been following Gareth’s blog, ‘Postcards from the English Outback’ for a few years and every time he posted I was convinced that there was beautifully written book tucked away in the collection of individual posts that only needed a few small adaptions to the atmospheric, evocative and engaging text he had originally written for his blog. Easy for me to say since I wasn’t writing it. We had corresponded for a while, me from the West Norfolk Fenland and him from the Kentish Fenland and I badgered him about adapting his blog into book form. He asked, ‘would I illustrate it?’, too right I would and so the project began. Medlar Press took it on without hesitation, immediately seeing the potential of a book which is about much more than just angling: covering nature, a gently described personal journey, time and place. Personally I’m looking forward to reading Gareth’s prose in its new printed format with the beautiful typography and all the illustrations in place, there’s something about holding and reading a proper book rather than it just living in my imagination and mind’s eye. I have to say that the book and producing the illustrations also represents a bit of a personal journey for me too but that is a story to be told another day. Thanks Gareth. You can find Gareth’s blog at https://postcardsfromtheenglishoutback.com