Axe 34

Where I live in South-West England the rivers break their banks each winter. This is why the county is called Somerset – the Land of the Summer People. It was always too sodden in winter to sustain human habitation. In recent centuries technology was introduced to subdue and shape this natural process of annual inundation, and the floods were held back for a while. But now humankind’s attempts to control nature have, once again, been giving way to larger forces.

These winter floods bring amazing diversity with them – diversity of species and environment, and also extraordinary visual diversity. The river presents itself in countless new guises.