In the late 1970s, we travelled from east London to Crowland in Lincolnshire for a family holiday. I’m not sure why my parents decided to go there. Maybe they thought it would make a change from Southend-on-Sea. All I remember about it now is the strange three-cornered stone bridge in the town centre that once spanned two long-rerouted rivers, the brooding presence of Crowland’s abbey on the skyline, and the terrifying roar of fighter jets skimming low over the flat Fenland landscape.
Poet and novelist Derek Turner’s evocative survey of Lincolnshire reveals a county of unexpected beauty, and it makes me think my parents were on to something. Turner left Deptford in London in 1999. “Why Lincolnshire?”, he was often asked. At the time it was not an easy question to answer. Today, his book provides an eloquent response.
