Prose

Book Signing Over the past fifty years, Shetland dialect short stories have often featured, and continue to feature, in the New Shetlander magazine, and also appear in Shetland Life magazine and various collections of writing. There are two approaches to story-writing: write entirely in dialect, or write the narrative in English and direct speech in dialect.

To date, no novel has ever been written completely in dialect, though several have dialect dialogue. John Graham, in his two novels Shadowed Valley (1987) and especially Strife in the Valley (1992), achieved a blend of English and dialect in the narrative, following a practice begun by other writers, notably Peter Jamieson, at an earlier time.

While a great amount of dialect poetry has been written over the years, dialect prose writing has not been so plentiful.

 

Latest Prose Additions

• Tang
  An extract from the 1898 novel ‘Tang’ by J.J. Haldane Burgess, which portrays life and relationships in a Shetland community.
• Dodie's Phenomenal Pheesic
  'Dodie's Phenomenal Pheesic' by Christine De Luca (2008) Translation of Roald Dahl's 'George's Marvellous Medicine' into Shetland dialect
• Da Whillie
  A boy adrift in a boat is rescued by a fishing boat crew. This short story by John Cumming is from 'White Below: poems and stories from Shetland’s fishing industry' (2010).

 

In This Section

• Biggin da Dess
  Hazel Sutherland's essay (2004) recalls a major annual task on the croft: ' Biggin da Dess' (building the haystack).
• Da Peesterleeties an da Curse o da Njuggle
  Characters from the world of Shetland folklore come to life in Valerie Watt's novel for bairns (2005). Here, two young trows get into real trouble when they befriend a njuggle.
• Da Whillie
  A boy adrift in a boat is rescued by a fishing boat crew. This short story by John Cumming is from 'White Below: poems and stories from Shetland’s fishing industry' (2010).
• Dodie's Phenomenal Pheesic
  'Dodie's Phenomenal Pheesic' by Christine De Luca (2008) Translation of Roald Dahl's 'George's Marvellous Medicine' into Shetland dialect
• Kirsten
  In John Cumming's short story from 2006, a coach and his star athlete come to terms with some of the hard realities of life.
• Nannie Georgedaughter
  A heart-stopping extract from George P.S. Peterson's 'Nannie Georgedaughter', a tale of the Press Gang days, fiction inspired by fact. First published in 2002.
• Strife In The Valley
  A vivid portrayal of character and nature of gossip. Extract from John J. Graham's 1992 novel 'Strife in the Valley'.
• Tang
  An extract from the 1898 novel ‘Tang’ by J.J. Haldane Burgess, which portrays life and relationships in a Shetland community.
• The Night That Mouat Was Lost
  Based on true events, this short story by Tom Henderson (1957) became a classic.