Linda Smiff asked Joy Ellis:

Well what a delight to find your books! I have finished your 1st and now have 3 more waiting. I am not familiar with the fens and its environment. What is it like? Who lives there? Is it peaceful? I of course am googling it but thought as a resident and author who lives there you could shed a first person perspective. Thanks for your writing!

Joy Ellis Hi Linda. I'm thrilled that you are enjoying the books and thank you so much for contacting me. The Fens are quite strange really, I have quite a good sense of direction but even I get lost on the fenland droves and lanes. It is mainly agricultural farm land, reclaimed from the sea and drained. It has some of the best soil in the UK. Hence, great stretches of arable fields with ditches and drains as their boundaries rather than hedges or fences. There are no high rise buildings, (except for one hospital) and in the old days travellers used to navigate their way across the fens by the shape of the church steeples and towers, every village had a different shape. The skies are enormous, and when the mists come down, as they often do because of the marshy areas close to the coast, it has a very eerie feel to it, but beautiful as well. As there is very little to stop the winds that sweep in from the sea, a lot of homes have windbreaks around them in the form of high hedging or barriers of trees, I love it. Some hate it. A lot of people move here because property is very reasonable, but they don't fully understand that country living can be difficult. Our village is populated by about half in-comers to half locals, but without the new residents, the old village would have died, so a good community has sprung up. And that I think is all I can say, without boring you to death! Take care, and all the very best to you, Joy

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