Internationally renowned, bestselling crime writer Ann Cleeves, whose novels gave birth to the hit TV series Shetland, shares her views on these remote and fascinating northerly islands
Shetland feels like home now. Travelling north on the overnight ferry, I often meet friends, especially in the winter when there are fewer tourists. The boat can take 14 hours from Aberdeen. I don’t sleep so well if the water’s completely calm, but that doesn’t happen very often. I love showing visitors the islands; whether they arrive by ferry or plane, the first glimpse is often spectacular.
On certain routes, the first sight of Shetland is Fair Isle, which has a very special place in my affections. I lived there for two seasons in the mid-70s. After dropping out of university and a chance meeting in a London pub, I was offered the post as assistant cook in the bird observatory there. I set off without any clear idea of where the island was or what my duties would be, but it was a life-changing summer.
I met my husband there and had the space and time to read and write. Fair Isle is tiny, with a population of less than 60, but most of the residents are storytellers, musicians or crafts-people and it was a perfect place for a wannabe writer to feed her imagination.
I love midsummer in Shetland, with its “simmer dim” or summer dusk, the light nights that stretch until morning. There’s something magic about the dark midwinter days, too, the contrast of the wild weather outside and the warmth indoors, peat fires and gossip. My first Shetland novel, Raven Black, was inspired by a trip in midwinter. There’d been snow and then frost, and ice on the shore. When the sun did rise, late in the morning, it was a huge orange ball. Ravens seemed very black against the snow. I thought if there was blood, too, the image would be mythic, like something from a fairy story. That book was a career-changer for me. Another reason to be grateful to Shetland.
The Bloody Shetland holiday experience with McKinlay Kidd and Bloody Scotland will happen in September, and that can be a time of change as summer seeps into autumn. Sometimes there are still, quiet days and sometimes the Atlantic lows bring gales from the west. There’s something magnificent about a violent storm. I’ll take my guests to Eshaness in Northmavine with its towering cliffs, sea caves and stacks, and I’ll be hoping for weather to match the drama of the landscape. We’ll see Mavis Grind where the Atlantic and the North Sea almost meet. And we’ll be staying in Busta House Hotel, the inspiration for Duncan Hunter’s house in Raven Black.
When I first came to Shetland 40 years ago, Lerwick had the air of a gold-rush town. Oil was coming ashore and the place was attracting flocks of single men seeking to make their fortune. The result of oil wealth can be seen everywhere in the islands. It has helped to build the swimming pools in rural communities, the good roads and Mareel, the magnificent arts centre right on the water, close to Lerwick town centre. This is a thriving place, creatively and commercially. There’s little unemployment in Shetland. Young islanders bring their own take to traditional crafts and the stark beauty of the islands is reflected in art, textiles and photography.
I go to Shetland several times a year and each time I find something new. This is a place of surprises. It’s a group of Scottish islands with a Scandinavian past. A community at the centre of new oil and gas technology that respects tradition and builds boats and fiddles by hand – a small enclosed society that’s welcoming to outsiders. As I said, I feel at home here.
Ann’s latest book, The Moth Catcher will be published by Macmillan in hardback on September 10, priced £16.99. Crime-writing fans have a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet Ann in person and discover for themselves why Shetland is her favourite holiday destination via the exclusive Bloody Shetland holiday experience (priced from £849 per person) with tour operator McKinlay Kidd and the Bloody Scotland crime-writing festival. The price includes three nights on a bed and breakfast basis with evening meals and entertainment, return flights from Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Inverness to Shetland, airport transfers and touring in Shetland by coach. You will have the services of a local tour guide and McKinlay Kidd representative throughout and two full days of touring, including one with Ann Cleeves herself, discovering the inspiration behind her novels. The Bloody Scotland crime-writing festival takes place in Sitrling from September 11-13. Visit www.seescotlanddifferently.co.uk or call 0141 308 8009 for more details.