The Shetland Way
Community and Climate Crisis on my Father's Islands
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The Shetland Way
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Narrated by:
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Marianne Brown
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By:
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Marianne Brown
About this listen
A memoir and investigation exploring loss, community and the climate crisis in the Shetland Islands by environmental journalist Marianne Brown
When Marianne Brown arrived in Voe, Shetland, to attend the funeral of her father, she had packed enough clothes to last a short trip. But this was February 2020, just weeks before the UK’s first lockdown, and she would be unable to leave for another six months.
Shetland is a place bound together by community, history and culture. But when a huge windfarm is greenlit to export energy to mainland Scotland, it creates rifts between neighbours, friends and even families. One side supports the benefit to a planet spiralling into climate disaster; the other challenges the impact on an environment with an already struggling wildlife population.
As an environmental journalist, Marianne is drawn to investigate this story of sustainable energy that is irrevocably tied to her grief. But nothing is ever straightforward, and she soon finds herself on a transformative journey into the heart of a debate that mirrors global concerns about how we save the planet.
©2025 Marianne Brown (P)2025 HarperCollins PublishersCritic reviews
‘It is a quite remarkable and complex book. What starts out as a seemingly straightforward lockdown narrative quickly become so much more. It draws you in because, at its heart, it's about what makes us human. It's about longing and belonging – about the perception of progress and profit and potential, unquantifiable loss. It's a reminder that there are two sides to everything and all you held to be true might not be so clear-cut as you imagined' George McGavin, author of The Hidden World
'In February 2020, environmental journalist Marianne Brown returned to her father's native Shetland for his funeral. This striking blend of memoir and environmental science is an alluring account of the six months she spent there, unable to leave due to lockdown. It was a transformative time, not only in bringing her closer to her mysterious father, but also because it propelled her into the heart of the debate over a huge proposed windfarm, forcing her to weigh the benefits to the planet against the environmental impact on a community she had come to love' The Bookseller, Editor's Choice