Overview

'Storm Pegs perfectly captures the knotting of language and landscape. I was transported.' - Katherine May, Sunday Times bestselling author of Wintering From the winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Highland Book Prize What if the answer to 'Where am I?' is 'heaven'? In her late twenties, celebrated poet Jen Hadfield moved to the Shetland archipelago to make her life anew. A scattering of islands at the northernmost point of the United Kingdom, frequently cut off from the mainland by storms, Shetland is a place of Vikings and myths, of ancient languages and old customs, of breathtaking landscapes and violent weather. It has long fascinated travellers seeking the edge of the world. On these islands known for their isolation and drama, Hadfield found something more: a place teeming with life, where rare seabirds blow in on Atlantic gales, seals and dolphins visit its beaches, and wild folk festivals carry the residents through long, dark winters. She found a close-knit community, too, of neighbours always willing to lend a boat or build a creel, of women wild-swimming together in the star-spangled winter seas. Over seventeen years, as bright summer nights gave way to storm-lashed winters, she learned new ways to live. In prose as rich and magical as Shetland itself, Hadfield transports us to the islands as a local; introducing us to the remote and beautiful archipelago where she has made her home, and shows us new ways of living at the edge.

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9781529038026

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Reviews

'This book is brim-full of love for Shetland – for its land and seascapes, for its people and language. Hadfield’s writing is fuelled by unceasing curiosity and attentiveness. It is vivid, lively and fresh' -- Malachy Tallack, author of <i>Sixty Degrees North</i>

Storm Pegs perfectly captures the knotting of language and landscape. I was transported. -- Katherine May, <i>Sunday Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Wintering</i> Delightful: at once intricate and effortless, playful and deeply-felt. A heartfelt paean to a coldwater Eden. -- Cal Flyn, author of <i> Islands of Abandonment</i> A gorgeous portrait of a fascinating, ever-changing place, as well as very many other things: friendship, community, creation and self-creation, the cycle of the seasons and the toil and triumph of the elements. I adored it. -- Sara Baume, author of <i>A Line Made By Walking</i> This book is brim-full of love for Shetland – for its land and seascapes, for its people and language. Hadfield’s writing is fuelled by unceasing curiosity and attentiveness. It is vivid, lively and fresh -- Malachy Tallack, author of <i>Sixty Degrees North</i> What a wonderful book. Jen Hadfield just has to turn her languaged gaze to the world and it fizzes to life on the page. One of the most intensely realised accounts of a place - and time in a place - I have read. -- Philip Marsden, author of <i>The Summer Isles</i>

Storm Pegs perfectly captures the knotting of language and landscape. I was transported. -- Katherine May, <i>Sunday Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Wintering</i> 'This book is brim-full of love for Shetland – for its land and seascapes, for its people and language. Hadfield’s writing is fuelled by unceasing curiosity and attentiveness. It is vivid, lively and fresh' -- Malachy Tallack, author of <i>Sixty Degrees North</i> A gorgeous portrait of a fascinating, ever-changing place, as well as very many other things: friendship, community, creation and self-creation, the cycle of the seasons and the toil and triumph of the elements. I adored it. -- Sara Baume, author of <i>A Line Made By Walking</i>

Author Information

Jen Hadfield was the youngest poet to win the T. S. Eliot Prize for her second collection, Nigh-No-Place, which was also shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. She has also won an Eric Gregory Award and the Edwin Morgan Poetry Competition. She lives in Shetland with her family.

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