Description

‘It was with a happy, friendly feeling that I bade good morning to the land of my birth after an absence of forty-nine years.’

PETER INKSTER emigrated to Western Canada as a young man, returning to his native Shetland Islands just once, in 1948. During that journey, he kept a diary of his post-war observations and childhood memories. Peter’s stories offer a poignant, often humorous glimpse into humble village life at the end of the nineteenth century.

Generations later, his great-granddaughter, Karen Inkster Vance, stood at a ship’s rail as it sailed into Lerwick, eager to retrace Peter’s footsteps. She initially set out to uncover her own family’s Shetland past, but in the decades since, her quest has expanded. Weaving extensive historical research – interviews, letters, photos, newspaper articles, and archival documents – with her great-grandfather’s narrative, Inkster Vance has painstakingly pieced together the story of an entire community and a way of life gone by.

Both a homecoming memoir and a compelling local history, Voices from the Past tells the true stories of ordinary people from a remote Norse Scottish fishing village. This book will leave you with a deep appreciation for the crofters, knitters, fishermen, and merchant seamen of North Roe who struggled – and survived – along the edge of the sea.