Monstrosities Mon Amour: The Fens with Tom Cox

Writer Tom Cox has long been fascinated by the eerie flatlands of the Fens, those drained marshlands on the edge of East Anglia.

On our way around we discuss the folk horror of scarecrows, the romance of agribusiness and the weird agoraphobia - or is it claustrophobia? - of somewhere so flat and relatively uninhabited. And we marvel too at the odd midcentury modern villages that have cropped up in this landscape of ancient and modern.

As well as that, Tom dazzles me with his love for the Rolling Stones’s psychedelic experiment, their 1967 album Their Satanic Majesties Request, which many fans deem a failure but which Tom rates higher than Sgt Pepper. Find out why this album is so inspiring, and how its spirit is the very antithesis of people-pleasing AI.

Tom Cox is the author of three novels – Villager, 1983 and his most recent, Everything Will Swallow You, as well as numerous works of non-fiction such as 21st-Century Yokel (on the spooky edges of the outdoors) and Ring the Hill (it’s a book about hills, obviously). You can find out more about his work on his site, where he also shares lots of new writing.

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