David Profumo

Islands of inspiration: a poet’s life on Shetland

Jen Hadfield is not only spellbound by the moods of the ocean and the hectic weather but by the Shaetlan dialect itself – which ‘struck me immediately as a poetic language’

A shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) comes in to land on a stormy day in Shetland. [Alamy]
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  • Storm Pegs: A Life Made in Shetland

    Jen Hadfield

    Picador, pp. 340, £18

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