Welcome

The past eighteen months have, for most of us, been among the strangest times through which we have ever lived. Things that were once taken for granted — the opportunity to travel, to see friends and family, to attend events — have been restricted or prohibited. More time than ever has been spent at home.

For many people, young and old, reading has been one of the ways these months have been made more bearable, less fearful. Reading has offered entertainment, education, escape. It has been a way to feel engaged with what is happening in the world, and also to be distracted from it. Both, at different times, have felt essential to me.

One of the many events that could not take place in 2020 was Wordplay. This was a big disappointment to me, having been involved in planning the festival, just as it was to those who were looking forward to attending. I am absolutely delighted therefore that, this year, we’ve been able to ensure that Wordplay can once again go ahead. Audiences in Shetland will have the opportunity to hear from, to speak to, and to learn from, some of the very best contemporary writers.

Those writers include Gavin Francis, who, in Intensive Care, has written about his work as a GP during the pandemic, seeing first-hand the impact that Covid-19 has had on individuals and on communities. Cal Flyn, meanwhile, in her superb book Islands of Abandonment, has illuminated both the damage that human beings do to their places, and the extraordinary ways in which nature can heal and restore itself.

For lovers of fiction, we have Mary Paulson-Ellis, whose ‘detective stories without a detective’ have made her a Times bestseller. She’ll be introducing her brand new novel, Emily Noble’s Disgrace. I’m also thrilled to welcome Damian Barr, host of the BBC’s Big Scottish Book Club, whose most recent book, the acclaimed and award-winning You Will Be Safe Here, is set in South Africa, early in the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries.

It’s a delight, this year, to be able bring together the poets Jen Hadfield and Christine de Luca, to share from and talk about their new collections, The Stone Age and Veeve. It’s also very exciting to feature Jennifer Lucy Allan (The Foghorn’s Lament), on the allure (and the music) of foghorns, and Donald S Murray (For the Safety of All), on the incredible history of Scottish lighthouses.

In addition to all of these, Wordplay will also include four workshops: one each on fiction, non-fiction, poetry and book illustration. These will be led by authors Mary Paulson-Ellis and Cal Flyn, by Alycia Pirmohamed, winner of the 2020 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, and by Kathryn Briggs, illustrator of Val McDermid’s most recent book, Resistance.

The pandemic is not yet over, of course, and this year’s festival has been simplified and somewhat slimmed-down in order to accommodate for the uncertainties we still are facing. Like many book festivals this autumn, we’re offering both in-person and online events, making Wordplay 2021 as widely accessible as possible. I’m so pleased to have had the chance to curate this programme, and I hope that readers from across Shetland will find something here to interest and excite them.

Malachy Tallack

Wordplay programme curator

Malachy Tallack is the author of three books, most recently a novel, set in Shetland, The Valley at the Centre of the World.