Bog Oak Publishing
is based in East Anglia, at the edge of the fens. Our work is inspired by the ancient bog oaks that emerge from the earth.
This land we perch on is only a couple of hundred years old. The fens were muddy swamps until adventurers drained them to make farmland. Thousands of years ago, trees grew, aged, blew over in storms and so fell into the bog. Peat preserved the timber because of its acidity. Bog oak is partially fossilised wood, preserved because it’s infused with minerals. It is older than the pyramids, older than Stone Henge. Find out more here …
Farmers find it when their ploughshares hit the rock-hard wood with a clunk. When that happens, they may swear, or value it, or both. People can make – with difficulty because it’s so hard – beautiful sculptures from bog oak. They polish them to a dark sheen.
Bog Oak Publishing
aims to bring the wild beauty of the fens into our everyday lives.When we open our eyes, we notice the birds that share our lives, in town or countryside. Their movements draw us to wheel and soar with them, climbing thermal air currents, opening up our thinking. Or we peck in the dust to find crumbs that can nourish us. When we turn our bright eyes to the here and now, we notice the warmth of friendship or an everyday blessing like clean water. We see plants cracking tarmac to burst into life in spite of oppression. The texture of leaves tells us we are alive. When we sniff leafmould, the smell takes us back to our ancient roots in the earth.
We need ancient beauty, old wisdom …
Are we trying to make people line up like battalions of sugar beet ready for harvest? That won’t work because human life just won’t fit! The bog oak dragon, like the branch of a half-fossilised tree, snags our best efforts. It beckons with its bony claw, inviting us to shake up our linear thinking. Maybe we need to unearth it, brush the soil off, and bring it into daylight? Listen! Is it whispering the ancient wisdom we need? Perhaps our ancestors are reaching up to us through the centuries. It’s unnerving, like an arm rising up from the dazzle of a lake … to catch and drown our habit of fighting. If we take a deep breath and kiss this old dragon on the nose – can we see the wisdom it reveals? It may show us ancient ways to link our communities in warmth and friendship.
Forthcoming books:
The Storyteller Trilogy
– coming soon!
Artwork © Katherine Soutar
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