When journalist Marianne Brown travels to Shetland for her father’s funeral, she expects a short stay. But as the UK enters lockdown, she finds herself stranded for six months—immersed in the islands’ tight-knit community, rugged beauty and a battle over the future of its land.

A massive wind farm project promises clean energy but divides the islanders. Some see it as essential in the fight against climate change, while others fear its impact on wildlife, nature and traditional ways of life. As Marianne delves deeper, she realises this conflict reflects a much bigger global dilemma—how do we create a sustainable future without sacrificing the environment we seek to protect?

A beautifully written book exploring:
✔️ Climate crisis & sustainability – The harsh realities of green energy
✔️ Community & belonging – A portrait of Shetland life in a time of change
✔️ Grief & transformation – A personal journey woven into a wider global struggle

Intelligent, insightful and deeply moving, The Shetland Way is a thought-provoking look at the complexities of saving our planet. A must-read for those interested in environmental issues, personal memoirs and powerful storytelling.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

From memoir to reportage
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This one hits close to home. When a parent dies, you can’t help but remember all the things that made them them. In Brown’s case, the father was a potter, not so long ago returned to his homeland of Shetland, there to pot using local materials, inspired by local landscapes. So when Brown returns to arrange his funeral, the land is proxy for the man. The timing couldn’t be worse, with Covid on its way, and other existential threats on the horizon, such as an onshore wind farm. And so it begins, the author, spouse and child begin lockdown in the late father’s house on Shetland, surrounded by his things, in full view of the graveyard, on the land where he grew up, where he lived, where he died.

In a throbbing mix of history and reportage, facts and folklore, family myths and memories, Brown conjures up a land that is both fantastical and prosaic: where trows and fairies lurk under every leaf, in every ferny hollow; where ecological catastrophe is both history and future; where community and family are the same thing. Punctuated with Brown’s reconstructed memories of the late father, with folktales and rural adventures, what starts as a meditation slowly comes into focus as a commentary on the climate emergency and how it affects Shetlanders—and therefore us—as individuals, as families, as communities.

Four and a half stars, rounded up to five.

The Shetland Way by Marianne Brown is a poignant and timely exploration of sustainability, grief, and community. Part memoir, part investigative narrative, the book intricately weaves the author’s personal journey with broader global debates about climate change, renewable energy, and the often-overlooked human cost of environmental progress.

When Marianne arrives in Shetland to attend her father’s funeral, she unknowingly embarks on a longer and more profound stay than anticipated, thanks to the COVID-19 lockdowns. In these isolated islands, she finds herself grappling with her grief and becoming enmeshed in the heated debates surrounding the construction of a massive wind farm. The project promises sustainable energy and climate benefits but threatens Shetland’s fragile ecosystems, wildlife, and traditional way of life.

What I loved about the book:
Marianne Brown excels at capturing the complexities of the issues at hand. Her perspective as an environmental journalist brings both depth and nuance to the narrative. She delves into the paradoxes of renewable energy: the necessity of sustainable practices versus the unintended consequences they bring to communities and ecosystems.

The human element is profoundly present. Brown gives voice to individuals on both sides of the debate, enabling readers to empathize with their struggles and convictions. Her reflections on grief and her father’s legacy provide a deeply personal and emotional anchor to the story, making the larger environmental themes feel even more urgent and relatable.

The Shetland setting itself is vividly depicted—its windswept landscapes, rich cultural history, and tight-knit communities come alive on the page. Brown’s descriptions make it clear how much is at stake for the people and the environment they cherish.

What could have been improved:
While the book provides an insightful exploration of the tensions between progress and preservation, some readers may find the pacing uneven. The personal and investigative elements sometimes feel slightly disconnected, and a tighter integration of these threads might have enhanced the overall flow.

Additionally, while Brown's analysis is thorough, readers unfamiliar with the technical aspects of wind energy and environmental policies might benefit from more simplified explanations to ground the discussion further.

Overall:
The Shetland Way is an elegant and thought-provoking read that encourages reflection on our choices and their impact on the world around us. It’s a story of loss, hope, and the interconnectedness of humanity and nature. Marianne Brown’s ability to tackle complex topics with sensitivity and grace makes this book essential reading for anyone interested in climate issues, community dynamics, and the human experience.

Whether you’re deeply familiar with sustainability debates or new to the conversation, this book offers a compelling and accessible entry point. It’s both a call to action and a reminder of the difficult decisions we face in our collective effort to balance the needs of the planet with those of its people. Highly recommended!

A very relevant and timely memoir, which is mainly about sustainability and the complex issues surrounding our choices.
The most striking aspect of this memoir for me was how it sheds a light on people’s life style choices impacting the planet and the communities, and its honesty and critical perspective.
On a personal note, I share some specific similarities about grief (time: COVID lockdowns, cause of death, losing a parent), and similar concerns about the future of the planet, and yet, the rest was entirely new and informative to me.

On the one hand The Shetland Way is an exploration of the various impacts of creating sustainable energy sources on Shetland, but it echoes the zeitgeist, paradoxes and complexities of it globally. The microcosm echoes the macrocosm. We are all aware that unless our energy use becomes more sustainable the consequences will be dire, but often, as here, producing the tools to do so has a detrimental affect on wildlife, nature and residents. The conflicts that creates, both within individual minds and between those in the communities is well explored. The fact that the world is now built on endless growth and profit, that it is so embedded in the mindsets of those who control these matters that they can’t see it, that it is largely the poor who pay, is exemplified and specified in an intelligent and insightful way. Individuals’ thoughts and experiences are examined in a perceptive and engaging manner. You find yourself putting yourself in the shoes of many of them, both for and against, and of those with more mixed emotions. I have personal experience of some of the more negative impacts of windfarms, having lived in Cornwall for many years. I would hope that those who are from more urban environments will find this book an accessible way to imagine how it must feel. Books like this are needed. It’s not an either or, none of it is black and white, there will be a price to pay whatever we do, and as ever big business largely calls the shots and makes the money. But we all need to engage more with these thorny issues and appreciate what we’re looking at. This book would be a great start for anyone who wants to have a better, more human and engaged understanding of it.