BOOK REVIEW This is a sensual love letter to the beautiful island of Shetland
On the morning after a storm, Jen Hadfield is often seen “nit-combing” her nearest beach, foraging for seaweed-entangled treasures that have washed ashore. Past trawls have uncovered a can of Korean hairspray; a tub of Soviet-era grease; a creepy doll’s head with a barnacle-pocked face; a message in a bottle inviting the finder to “be a devil and write to me”; and a mysterious lump of wax that may have time-travelled from the days when clipper ships carried barrels of tallow in their holds.