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Peatlands
A beautiful, urgent and personal exploration of bogs and the role they must play in saving our planet - for fans of Otherlands and The Last Rainforests of Britain
Longlisted for the Wainwright Prize 2025
'A fascinating, impassioned invitation into the hidden mystery of bogs' - OLIVIA LAING, author of The Garden Against Time
'Enchanting . . . If you've ever looked at a wetland and wanted to know it better, Fowler is an ideal knowledgeable, passionate, and above all, joyous and personable in her prose.' - JESSICA J. LEE, author of Two Trees Make a Forest
'The book throws a sharp light on the plight of bogs - places that come spectacularly to life under Fowler's analytic and passionate gaze. A delight to read but also a sobering education.' - TOM STUART-SMITH
'The curious, still silence of peat bogs is so much at odds with their deep and ancient complexities. This book, so immersive, thoughtfully penned and well-observed makes an intimate connection to these often overlooked and enormously precious places. It makes you want to tread lightly and to look deeper.' - DAN PEARSON
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'Why do I like bogs so much? I think it is because I feel very at home with them, I think this has something to do with my queerness and their queer nature as a space.'
The value of peat bogs as a natural resource and haven of biodiversity is undisputed, yet few of us have been lucky enough to experience their beauty and richness. In Peatlands, Wainwright Prize-shortlisted author Alys Fowler calls for us to sink deep into the dark, black earths of these rugged places and take a close look at the birds, animals, plants and insects that live within them.
Living in Wales nestled between bogs makes Alys Fowler's Peatlands both personal and illuminating. Her odyssey takes her deep into the Flow Country, to the remote Border Mires, through Bannau Brycheiniog, the Peak District and Ireland, creating an intimate picture of these magical places and the people who care for them.
Longlisted for the Wainwright Prize 2025
'A fascinating, impassioned invitation into the hidden mystery of bogs' - OLIVIA LAING, author of The Garden Against Time
'Enchanting . . . If you've ever looked at a wetland and wanted to know it better, Fowler is an ideal knowledgeable, passionate, and above all, joyous and personable in her prose.' - JESSICA J. LEE, author of Two Trees Make a Forest
'The book throws a sharp light on the plight of bogs - places that come spectacularly to life under Fowler's analytic and passionate gaze. A delight to read but also a sobering education.' - TOM STUART-SMITH
'The curious, still silence of peat bogs is so much at odds with their deep and ancient complexities. This book, so immersive, thoughtfully penned and well-observed makes an intimate connection to these often overlooked and enormously precious places. It makes you want to tread lightly and to look deeper.' - DAN PEARSON
-------
'Why do I like bogs so much? I think it is because I feel very at home with them, I think this has something to do with my queerness and their queer nature as a space.'
The value of peat bogs as a natural resource and haven of biodiversity is undisputed, yet few of us have been lucky enough to experience their beauty and richness. In Peatlands, Wainwright Prize-shortlisted author Alys Fowler calls for us to sink deep into the dark, black earths of these rugged places and take a close look at the birds, animals, plants and insects that live within them.
Living in Wales nestled between bogs makes Alys Fowler's Peatlands both personal and illuminating. Her odyssey takes her deep into the Flow Country, to the remote Border Mires, through Bannau Brycheiniog, the Peak District and Ireland, creating an intimate picture of these magical places and the people who care for them.
- GenresNatureNonfiction
254 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 29, 2025
About the author
Alys Fowler
19 books96 followersAlys Fowler trained at the Horticultural Society, the New York Botanical Garden and the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. After finishing her training, she worked as a journalist for the trade magazine, Horticulture Week, and then joined the Gardeners' World team as a horticultural researcher.
Alys is a gardener who loves food. She has an allotment and an urban back garden with two chickens, lots of flowers and plenty of vegetables. Her inspiration for urban gardening comes from her time volunteering in a community garden on the Lower East side in Manhattan, New York City. Much of the ethic, thrift and spirit she encountered there is found in her work today. She is author of several books and writes a weekly column on gardening for the Guardian.
Alys is a gardener who loves food. She has an allotment and an urban back garden with two chickens, lots of flowers and plenty of vegetables. Her inspiration for urban gardening comes from her time volunteering in a community garden on the Lower East side in Manhattan, New York City. Much of the ethic, thrift and spirit she encountered there is found in her work today. She is author of several books and writes a weekly column on gardening for the Guardian.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 26, 2025
Let’s make ‘bog standard’ the highest standard for anything. I loved this book! Wowowowowow
June 29, 2025
Exactly what I was after. This book is packed with information about the feel and nature of bogs, their composition, history and wildlife. Engaging and funny, this is also a book on the climate crisis and full of science. I learned a lot from reading it.
If you don’t like bogs much, don’t expect to like this book and don’t bother rating it.
If you don’t like bogs much, don’t expect to like this book and don’t bother rating it.
September 6, 2025
I am not quite sure how I came to read this book: it was a gift to my gardening mad partner. However I am glad I read it. What I know of peatlands is restricted to my interest in wetlands archaeology, bog bodies and a recent trip to the Outer Hebrides, involving long walks over mires and bogs. I learnt a lot from this book about landscapes that I often overlooked as empty and 'uncomfortable'. Little did I know about the complex structures of bogs and peatlands, the myriad types of mosses, the domes and water channels that exist within them, conservationists and the battle against forest plantations for their survival and restoration. Above all, little did I know about their ecological significance and the battle against CO2 emissions.
At the end of chapter three, I read: "If peat is allowed to age for its entire geological lifetime in its natural environment, it would turn first to lignite, then charcoal, anthracite (a high ranked type of coal), and eventually graphite. But if you dig up any of this, whether it is peat to be used as compost or fuel, or you drain it for agriculture, or you extract it as coal, it goes back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
"That sum of the fossil fuels we are burning, hurtling us into an uncertain future, were once bogs and peatlands is not irony, but a lesson. The earth was burying all this dead organic material for a reason. To reduce atmospheric carbon and make life habitable here. Peatlands weren't born by accident. They were formed by the earth's complex systems to keep the living world cool."
Having said that, it was not an easy book to read. I wasn't quite sure if it was an academic-based work on horticulture, a diary or just a listing of Alys Fowlers reasons for loving peatlands so much. I have to say too that there were some lovely touches of self-irony (learning how to use a microscope) and humanity in her expressions of love for her long-suffering partner, Eli. And worst of all, there were times when I was screaming for a picture, diagram, drawing, watercolour sketch anything that could help me visualise all the different mosses and peatland formations.
At the end of chapter three, I read: "If peat is allowed to age for its entire geological lifetime in its natural environment, it would turn first to lignite, then charcoal, anthracite (a high ranked type of coal), and eventually graphite. But if you dig up any of this, whether it is peat to be used as compost or fuel, or you drain it for agriculture, or you extract it as coal, it goes back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
"That sum of the fossil fuels we are burning, hurtling us into an uncertain future, were once bogs and peatlands is not irony, but a lesson. The earth was burying all this dead organic material for a reason. To reduce atmospheric carbon and make life habitable here. Peatlands weren't born by accident. They were formed by the earth's complex systems to keep the living world cool."
Having said that, it was not an easy book to read. I wasn't quite sure if it was an academic-based work on horticulture, a diary or just a listing of Alys Fowlers reasons for loving peatlands so much. I have to say too that there were some lovely touches of self-irony (learning how to use a microscope) and humanity in her expressions of love for her long-suffering partner, Eli. And worst of all, there were times when I was screaming for a picture, diagram, drawing, watercolour sketch anything that could help me visualise all the different mosses and peatland formations.
June 28, 2025
Naaaah! I think Alys is a bit in love with her own whimsy, she seems continually shocked by just how much she bloody loves…bogs!?
April 30, 2026
Actual rating 3.5 stars
A great book to read to shift your perspective on bogs. Bogs have a reputation for being dull, empty somewhat useless parts of our natural landscapes and this book proves that all to be untrue. Fowlers deep appreciation for peatland is blinding throughout every page and I can safely say I have been converted into a bog-lover (even though I already kind of was.) Far from being what most people assume this book provides an insight into bogs that makes them full of colour, beauty and interest. From the thousands of species, to the ecological signifigance, to even just the way they look, Walkers appreciation for bogs is kind of infectious:
"At its closest, it is brown but also golden and green; it is orange and purple, wine red, pink, mirrored wilver; it is everything, all the colour all the light; it is the sky; it is vast and miniature. When it rains it does so in waves; when it shines it is heaven on earth. It is so ancient and still growing. It is so very local and, of course, global: 400 million tonnes of carbon are stored beneath it's mossy layers. Thats double the amount stored by all the trees in Britain"
Walker doesn't just highlight the present physical space of a bogs but also the historical, spiritual aspect of one too. As, a liminal space, a boundary between land and water, a glimpse into the past. Bogs are not just natural ecology but places of myth, titual and buried treasure that have found a deep hold on our psyche. I think that even the most avowed bog hater reading this could not help but be slightly won over by Fowlers deeply enthusiastic point of view.
This enthusiasm can occasionally run over and muddy the waters so to speak. Usually Walker's use of somewhat unconventional language works, like when she describes a bog as "toffee before it cracks, browning butter and caramel just as it swirls into shape." This is not language that would usually be used for a bog but it works despite that. But sometimes its just a bit strange like this passage where she's talking about reading scientific papers on bogs:
"(While reading the papers) I didn't have to engage with the increasing panic I felt about the stage of the world, the damage we are doing to our environment, the horror of our politics (A nation is an ion-a charged atom or group of atoms-with a positive charge)"
Huh? What's that about atoms? It took me a few re-reads to figure out she meant that fact was a distraction but since it somes out of nowhere and was not about bogs thats not how it came across. This happened a few times; a random bit of info she shoots off causes to to metaphorically stumble and figure out what is the actual point being made. This is combined with a slightly random structure. There appears to be no links between each chapter, making this more like a series of essays than an "odyssey" on peatlands. Take chapter 8 for example which ends on a nice metaphor of the upper layer of moss being the skin that protects the vital blood of the bog; the water. This would be a lovely segue into taking about water but instead the next chapter is about historical finds in bogs. What's even more bizarre is that water IS elaborated on, just much later in the books. Both of these issues combine into the impression that Fowler is deeply passionate and knowledgeable about bogs but was so overwhelmed with the need to share that knowledge that the presentation of it was somewhat neglected.
Reading this book is like when you start talking to someone at a party and the conversation shifts to one of their passions; very entertaining and informative, but also kind of hard to follow. I think this is a lot to do with how my brain in particular works though, and I do recommend it, especially for those who have no interest or an actual dislike for bogs and peatlands. Its a great example of how another person's interest in something can spark your own interest in turn.
A great book to read to shift your perspective on bogs. Bogs have a reputation for being dull, empty somewhat useless parts of our natural landscapes and this book proves that all to be untrue. Fowlers deep appreciation for peatland is blinding throughout every page and I can safely say I have been converted into a bog-lover (even though I already kind of was.) Far from being what most people assume this book provides an insight into bogs that makes them full of colour, beauty and interest. From the thousands of species, to the ecological signifigance, to even just the way they look, Walkers appreciation for bogs is kind of infectious:
"At its closest, it is brown but also golden and green; it is orange and purple, wine red, pink, mirrored wilver; it is everything, all the colour all the light; it is the sky; it is vast and miniature. When it rains it does so in waves; when it shines it is heaven on earth. It is so ancient and still growing. It is so very local and, of course, global: 400 million tonnes of carbon are stored beneath it's mossy layers. Thats double the amount stored by all the trees in Britain"
Walker doesn't just highlight the present physical space of a bogs but also the historical, spiritual aspect of one too. As, a liminal space, a boundary between land and water, a glimpse into the past. Bogs are not just natural ecology but places of myth, titual and buried treasure that have found a deep hold on our psyche. I think that even the most avowed bog hater reading this could not help but be slightly won over by Fowlers deeply enthusiastic point of view.
This enthusiasm can occasionally run over and muddy the waters so to speak. Usually Walker's use of somewhat unconventional language works, like when she describes a bog as "toffee before it cracks, browning butter and caramel just as it swirls into shape." This is not language that would usually be used for a bog but it works despite that. But sometimes its just a bit strange like this passage where she's talking about reading scientific papers on bogs:
"(While reading the papers) I didn't have to engage with the increasing panic I felt about the stage of the world, the damage we are doing to our environment, the horror of our politics (A nation is an ion-a charged atom or group of atoms-with a positive charge)"
Huh? What's that about atoms? It took me a few re-reads to figure out she meant that fact was a distraction but since it somes out of nowhere and was not about bogs thats not how it came across. This happened a few times; a random bit of info she shoots off causes to to metaphorically stumble and figure out what is the actual point being made. This is combined with a slightly random structure. There appears to be no links between each chapter, making this more like a series of essays than an "odyssey" on peatlands. Take chapter 8 for example which ends on a nice metaphor of the upper layer of moss being the skin that protects the vital blood of the bog; the water. This would be a lovely segue into taking about water but instead the next chapter is about historical finds in bogs. What's even more bizarre is that water IS elaborated on, just much later in the books. Both of these issues combine into the impression that Fowler is deeply passionate and knowledgeable about bogs but was so overwhelmed with the need to share that knowledge that the presentation of it was somewhat neglected.
Reading this book is like when you start talking to someone at a party and the conversation shifts to one of their passions; very entertaining and informative, but also kind of hard to follow. I think this is a lot to do with how my brain in particular works though, and I do recommend it, especially for those who have no interest or an actual dislike for bogs and peatlands. Its a great example of how another person's interest in something can spark your own interest in turn.
June 30, 2025
The best monsters are the ones you don't really see, the ones only half revealed and never fully understood. Hidden, mysterious and with a hint of danger to those that tread near, the bog monster becomes inspiration to writer/gardener/questor Alys Fowler who embarks on an eager exploration of our incredible peatlands and the urgent need to redress the real monster behind their deteriorating health.
Exploited for their incredible properties our bogs and fen have long inspired fear, secured lives, enriched our natural world, provided haven for life and storage of our carbon.
Alys has the uncanny ability to take areas of our landscapes and natural world and pull back the veil to see just how much we miss in the sights, sounds and invisible qualities of the spaces and places we budge up against as we seek to mine natural resources for our own benefits.
Accessible, wide ranging and at times genuinely startling, Peatlands will unlock curiosity and fascination into the strange other worldly nature of a landscape it's easier to ignore than not, and inspire wonder.
Covering flora and fauna, biology, geology, farming practices, history, mystery and policy as she wades herself, family and friends through the wettest walks imaginable, this book will genuinely give the reader a whole new landscape to ponder. All hail the bog monster!
Exploited for their incredible properties our bogs and fen have long inspired fear, secured lives, enriched our natural world, provided haven for life and storage of our carbon.
Alys has the uncanny ability to take areas of our landscapes and natural world and pull back the veil to see just how much we miss in the sights, sounds and invisible qualities of the spaces and places we budge up against as we seek to mine natural resources for our own benefits.
Accessible, wide ranging and at times genuinely startling, Peatlands will unlock curiosity and fascination into the strange other worldly nature of a landscape it's easier to ignore than not, and inspire wonder.
Covering flora and fauna, biology, geology, farming practices, history, mystery and policy as she wades herself, family and friends through the wettest walks imaginable, this book will genuinely give the reader a whole new landscape to ponder. All hail the bog monster!
March 6, 2026
A love letter to our peatlands, and as a bog lover, I knew I had to pick this up! I spent a weekend a few years ago volunteering with RSPB at Forsinard, Alys captures the wonder and beauty of the place vividly! This book doesn't shy away from the science but it's still incredibly accessible, which is quite a skillful thing to achieve. I love science and nature writers who aren't afraid to let their feelings and passion shine through, it takes bravery as so many of us are trained not to do this during our studies! I found this very informative, inspiring and calming to read.
August 4, 2025
Truly enlightening about the world of bogs - something we clearly need to pay more attention to! Beautifully written.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews