Storm Pegs
A Life Made in Shetland
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Pan Macmillan
Publishing:3rd Apr '25
£10.99
This title is due to be published on 3rd April, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This evocative book explores life in the remote Shetland Islands, highlighting the beauty and challenges of living in such a unique environment. Storm Pegs captures the spirit of community and nature.
In Storm Pegs, poet Jen Hadfield shares her profound connection to the remote British islands of Shetland, where she relocated in her late twenties. This collection serves as a heartfelt tribute to the unique beauty and wildness of life on these islands. Hadfield's writing captures the essence of a place where nature reigns supreme, and the rhythm of life is dictated by the elements and the community that thrives within this rugged landscape.
The narrative is rich with imagery, bringing to life the rare seabirds, the ancient language, and the close-knit relationships that define Shetland. Hadfield's reflections reveal not just the physical beauty of the islands, but also the emotional and spiritual journey she undertook while embracing this new way of living. Her words resonate with a deep appreciation for the natural world and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of isolation.
Storm Pegs invites readers to experience the exhilaration of life at the edge, offering a glimpse into the joys and challenges of living in such a remote environment. Hadfield’s lyrical prose and keen observations create a vivid portrait of Shetland, making it clear why this place has become a cherished home for her. This book is not only a celebration of the landscape but also a meditation on the connections that bind us to the places we call home.
Storm Pegs perfectly captures the knotting of language and landscape. I was transported. -- Katherine May, Sunday Times bestselling author of Wintering
Storm Pegs is rich, attentive and beautifully written. Hadfield writes vividly about the tides, the Shaetlan language, and shows a great appreciation for the people and modern life of Shetland. This book has been my friend. I really loved it and I recommend it -- Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun
Storm Pegs is a deeply thoughtful and beautifully written account of a life centred on making art in a lively island community. Hadfield writes with rare nuance about choosing and building a new life in a place that calls to many of us. -- Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater
Delightful: at once intricate and effortless, playful and deeply felt. A heartfelt paean to a coldwater Eden. -- Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment
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 The Summer Isles
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 A Line Made By Walking
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 Sixty Degrees North
In this memoir, written after seventeen years living in this wild, wonderful place, Hadfield reflects on her pristine but often brutal surroundings, where seals and dolphins nose up to the beaches and residents enjoy wild swimming through wintry seas. -- GQ, The best books of 2024
Storm Pegs is as much an account of the author finding new personal bearings as a series of magic lantern slides about insular life . . . This is a great, bright birl of a book – thoroughly beguiling. * The Spectator *
Hadfield paints Shetland vividly as a place ever-changing. Storm Pegs is a powerful hymn to Shetland and to community, as well as to the awesomeness of nature. This is a bewitching book, tactile and immersive, riven with salt winds, alive with human oddities and loud with the cries of seabirds. Everything glows in the light of Hadfield’s words, from slimy sea molluscs to grand island vistas. * The Telegraph *
ISBN: 9781529038033
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
368 pages