Malachy Tallack is the author of two non-fiction titles, 60 Degrees North and The Un-Discovered Island. Both fused nature writing, history and memoirl; the first was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award and the second was named Illustrated Travel Book of the Year at the Edward Standford Travel Writing Awards in 2016. Malachy won a New Writers Award from Scottish Book Trust in 2014 and the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in 2015. He is a singer-songwriter as well as a writer and journalist and lives in Dunblane. @malachytallack | malachytallack.com
Also by Malachy Tallack
Non-fiction
Sixty Degrees North
The Un-Discovered Islands
Published in Great Britain in 2018 by Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
This digital edition first published in 2018 by Canongate Books
Copyright © Malachy Tallack, 2018
The moral right of the author has been asserted
This book is a work of fiction. Its plot, characters and setting are not based on real events, people or places. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is entirely coincidental.
The author acknowledges support from Creative Scotland towards the writing of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 78689 232 4
eISBN 978 1 78689 231 7
Typeset in Bembo by Palimpsest Book Production Ltd,
Falkirk, Stirlingshire
For Thea and Malin
CONTENTS
SHETLAND GLOSSARY
| athin | within |
| blyde | glad |
| bonxie | a great skua |
| braaly | very |
| bruck | rubbish |
| caain | rounding up animals (sheep into a pen, for instance) |
| caddy | a hand-reared lamb |
| clerty | dirty |
| da day | today |
| da moarn | tomorrow |
| da night | tonight |
| dan-a-days | in those days |
| doot | used to express a lack of doubt. ‘I doot it’ll rain’ means ‘I think it will rain.’ However, the expression ‘nae doot’ means, literally, ‘no doubt’. |
| du/dee | you (subject, object and plural forms) |
| dy/dine | your/yours |
| een | one (wan is also used) |
| eenoo | just now |
| fae | from |
| fairt | afraid |
| fantin | starving |
| flankers | thigh waders |
| gansie | jumper |
| giud | went |
| ivver/nivver | ever/never |
| mind | remember |
| muckle | much/large |
| noost | a boat shelter, usually cut into a bank |
| ollick | ling |
| peerie | small |
| piltock | saithe/coalfish |
| selkie | seal |
| shoogle | shake |
| skerry | rocks protruding above the sea’s surface |
| toonie | someone from Lerwick |
| Up Helly Aa | ‘Viking’ festival invented in the late nineteenth century. It involves a torch-lit procession, fancy dress and alcohol. Many rural areas have smaller, more inclusive versions of the festival, but in Lerwick only men are allowed to take part. |
| wadder | weather |
| wark/wirk | work
|