In June we all read The Sea Road by Margaret Elphinstone - very timely as this year's midummer Johnsmas Foy celebrations in Shetland had a viking theme. This is a modern viking saga - the story of Gudrid, the most travelled woman of the viking world - who went from Iceland to Greenland to North America and had somehow got herself to Rome near journey's end, where she told her life story to a young scribe.
This was based on several of the old viking sagas, and told in saga style (some of our group had got round to reading the originals). The descriptions of the land and the arduous climate rang true and the astonishingly dangerous sea journeys were thrilling. Some Shetlanders still claim we are a hardy Viking Race, but having to walk to the shops for a pint of milk is too much for most of us nowadays.
Margaret Elphinstone used to stay in Shetland and in fact Morag remembers working with her in the library. They used to discuss the great novels they were writing. We still await Morag's (with every faith it will come) but Margaret has written a great book here which the whole group enjoyed. Apparently her others are good as well.
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