Plenty of good reading in the latest issue of Shetland Life
This month’s Shetland Life, out today, is full of interesting and unexpected items, with opinion, features, local history and culture and regular columns, crossword and sudoku and the popular Tushie Truncherfaece for younger readers.
Editor Malachy Tallack writes about the recent deaths of the last British WWI veterans, saying the best tribute is not to forget and that the pair knew more than any politician ever could.
Vaila Wishart ponders problems closer to home: what should be done (if anything) about pedestrianising da street and could CCTV be anti-social? She explains why you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to understand a conflict of interest, and makes a plea to stop describing the windfarm as a community project.
There are plenty of lighter matters in the magazine too.
An article about the Falkland Islands cargo ship, which doubles as a ferry and is skippered by Shetlander Malcolm Jamieson, is particularly interesting. The ship transports everything for beer to bathtubs, and the photos are beautiful.
An old photo of Paul and Linda McCartney in Commercial Street (the general public did not recognise them, apparently) is evocative and so are other pictures of the Thule Bar in its previous incarnation as the Sea View Vaults, with Douglas Sinclair’s information about its history making fascinating reading.
There are modern photos too, with several pages of Johnsmas Foy, Midsummer Carnival and Island Games pictures, plus some of the pictures in the August display at the Bonhoga gallery.
There is an article about the sail training boat Swan – have you ever considered chartering her to go to a dance in Fair Isle? – and another about Shetland’s newest tourist radio station – “a phenomenal marketing tool”.
Regular contributors Donald S Murray and Ronnie Eunson write about Iceland and Norway respectively, and the photos are wonderful.
Place names from the sagas are considered in Eileen Brooke-Freeman’s article, and Joyce Garden celebrates nature describing a cruise on the Yell ferry and a trip to Papa Stour.
There is more on local culture from Davy Cooper, who considers the importance of dialect, and from Ann Prior, who provides seasonal recipes using local ingredients. Something for everyone, in fact.
