Book Read Free

Death on a Shetland Isle

Page 29

by Marsali Taylor


  hae: have

  hadna: hadn’t

  harled: exterior plaster using small stones

  heid: head

  hoosie: little house, usually for bairns

  howk: to search among: I howked ida box o auld claes.

  isna: isn’t

  ken, kent: know, knew

  keek: peep at

  kirk: church

  kirkyard: graveyard

  kishie: wicker basket carried on the back, supported by a kishie baand around the forehead

  kleber: soapstone

  knowe: hillock

  Lerook: Lerwick

  lem: china

  likit: liked

  lintie: skylark

  lipper: a cheeky or harum-scarum child, generally affectionate

  mad: annoyed

  mair: more

  makkin belt: a knitting belt with a padded oval, perforated for holding the ‘wires’ or knitting needles.

  mam: mum

  mareel: sea phosphorescence, caused by plankton, which makes every wave break in a curl of gold sparks

  meids: shore features to line up against each other to pinpoint a spot on the water

  midder: mother

  mind: remember

  moorit: coloured brown or black, usually used of sheep

  mooritoog: earwig

  muckle: big – as in Muckle Roe, the big red island. Vikings were very literal in their names, and almost all Shetland names come from the Norse

  muckle biscuit: large water biscuit, for putting cheese on

  myrd: a good number and variety – a myrd o peerie things

  na: no, or more emphatically, nall

  needna: needn’t

  Norroway: the old Shetland pronunciation of Norway

  o: of

  oot: out

  ower: over

  park: fenced field

  peat: brick-like lump of dried peat earth, used as fuel

  peelie-wally: pale-faced, looking unwell

  peerie: small

  peerie biscuit: small sweet biscuit

  Peeriebreeks: affectionate name for a small thing, person or animal

  piltick: a sea fish common in Shetland waters

  pinnie: apron

  postie: postman

  quen: when

  redding up: tidying

  redd up kin: get in touch with family – for example, a five-generations New Zealander might come to meet Shetland cousins still staying in the house his or her forebears had left

  reestit mutton: wind-dried shanks of mutton

  riggit: dressed, sometimes with the sense dressed up

  roadymen: men working on the roads

  roog: a pile of peats

  rummle: untidy scattering

  Santy: Santa Claus

  scaddy man’s heids: sea urchins

  scattald: common grazing land

  scuppered: put paid to, done for

  selkie: seal, or seal person who came ashore at night, cast his/her skin and became human

  Setturday: Saturday

  shalder: oystercatcher

  sheeksing: chatting

  sho: she

  shoulda: should have

  shouldna: shouldn’t have

  SIBC: Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company, the independent radio station

  skafe: squint

  skerry: a rock in the sea

  smoorikins: kisses

  snicked: move a switch that makes a clicking noise

  snyirked: made a squeaking or rattling noise

  solan: gannet

  somewye: somewhere

  sooking up: sucking up

  soothified: behaving like someone from outwith Shetland

  spew: be sick

  spewings: piles of sick

  splatched: walked in a splashy way with wet feet, or in water

  steekit mist: thick mist

  sun-gaits: with the sun – it’s bad luck to go against the sun, particularly walking around a church

  swack: smart, fine

  swee: to sting (of injury)

  tak: take

  tatties: potatoes

  tay: tea, or meal eaten in the evening

  tink: think

  tirricks: Arctic terns

  toorie, toorie-cap: a round, knitted hat

  trows: trolls

  tushker: L-shaped spade for cutting peat

  twa: two

  twartree: a small number, several

  tulley: pocket knife

  unken: unknown

  vexed: sorry or sympathetic: ‘I was that vexed to hear that’

  vee-lined: lined with wood planking

  voe: sea inlet

  voehead: the landwards end of a sea inlet

  waander: wander

  waar: seaweed

  whatna: what

  wasna: wasn’t

  wha’s: who is

  whit: what

  whitteret: weasel

  wi: with

  wir: we’ve – in Shetlan grammar, ‘we are’ is sometimes ‘we have’

  wir: our

  wife: woman, not necessarily married

  wouldna: would not

  wupple: to twist or turn a bit of rope around something, to tangle

  yaird: enclosed area around or near the croft house

  yoal: a traditional clinker-built six-oared rowing boat

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thank you to all the people who helped me with research for this book: the journalist from The Orcadian who told me about the Eynhallow incident; Jonathon and the Walls Coastguard Team for letting me join in a search; Robert Thomson of Fetlar Developments Ltd for information on Fetlar and the game of hnefatafl; Maxie for playing several games against me, and showing me how quickly a young chess enthusiast could wipe out an ageing writer; Commander Roy on the finicky ways of captains; and Philip for our day out on Fetlar.

  On the writing side, thank you to my wonderful agent, Teresa Chris, for all her support and encouragement, and to Susie and the editors and designers at Allison & Busby. Cass’s adventures wouldn’t happen without you!

  We hope you enjoyed this book.

  Do you want to know about our other great reads, download free extracts and enter competitions?

  If so, visit our website www.allisonandbusby.com.

  Sign up to our monthly newsletter (www.allisonandbusby.com/newsletter) for exclusive content and offers, news of our brand new releases, upcoming events with your favourite authors and much more.

  And why not click to follow us on Facebook (AllisonandBusbyBooks) and Twitter (@AllisonandBusby)?

  We’d love to hear from you!

  About the Author

  MARSALI TAYLOR grew up near Edinburgh, and moved to Shetland as a newly qualified teacher. She is a former tourist guide who is fascinated by history, as well as a keen sailor who enjoys exploring in her own yacht. She lives on Shetland’s scenic west side.

  marsalitaylor.co.uk

  @MarsaliTaylor

  By Marsali Taylor

  Death in Shetland Waters

  Death on a Shetland Isle

  Copyright

  Allison & Busby Limited

  11 Wardour Mews

  London W1F 8AN

  allisonandbusby.com

  First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2018.

  This ebook edition published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2018.

  Copyright © 2018 by MARSALI TAYLOR

  The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which
it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 978–0–7490–2389–8

 

 

 


‹ Prev