Shetland

Book excerpt: In this gloriously illustrated companion to her crime novels featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez, Ann Cleeves takes readers through a year on Shetland. Discover its past, meet its people, celebrate its festivals and see how the flora and fauna of the islands change with the seasons. An archipelago of more than a hundred islands, Shetland is the one of the most remote places in the United Kingdom. Its fifteen hundred miles of shore mean that wherever one stands, there is a view of the sea. It has sheltered voes and beaches and dramatically exposed cliffs, lush meadows full of wild flowers in the summer and bleak hilltops where only the hardiest of plants will grow. It is a place where traditions are valued and celebrated, but new technologies and ways of working are also embraced. Whether it is the drama of the Viking fire festival of Up Helly Aa in winter, or the piercing blue and hot pink of spring flowers on the clifftops, the long, white nights of midsummer or the fierce gales and high tides of autumn, Shetland is vividly captured in all its bleak and special beauty. A book to treasure, full of photos and insightful notes about the stunning location of the Shetland series, now a major BBC One drama starring Douglas Henshall.