My own physical researches while writing my novel were in fact not so extensive I have never been yet to Wisbech or Prickwillow As a writer of fiction I am interested in imagined worlds and I would much rather hazard an inspired guess at some point of authenticity than go for documentary proof Yet this very attempt to imagine the Fens has its special logic for as the pages of Edward Storeys scholarly book abundantly show the Fens are peculiarly not just a landscape but a state of mind