Survival And Serenity On Britian's Most Remote Inhabited Island
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Fair Isle: The Geography of Bliss
A pandemic, a TV detective, a Scottish Terrier, and Britain's most remote inhabited island.
Audio dispatch
Fair Isle: Listening at the Edge of the Map
Put the kettle on. The wind does most of the talking out here.
It started on a sofa in Los Angeles. Sarah and I were binge-watching Shetland, and the world outside was shutting down.
Remote work had become the only kind of work. We decided to take the word literally.
Travel rearranges the furniture in your head. An island rearranges the rest.
Where the weather keeps the schedule
Fair Isle does not negotiate. The boat comes when the sea allows it. The wind decides what the day will be. You stop planning around your calendar and start planning around the sky.
Skyelark understood this faster than we did. She met her first sheep and remembered something no one had taught her. Dogs don't need a reason to be present. They just are.
Then life folded back on itself. In Lerwick, I met Douglas Henshall, the actor who had played the detective on that sofa in Los Angeles. On Fair Isle, I met Jimmy Stout, a real islander, while TV had given us the fictional Jimmy Perez.
Some places comfort you. Fair Isle woke us up.
More from the Island
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Meeting Douglas Henshall
We watched Shetland on a sofa in Los Angeles. Then we met its detective filming in Lerwick.
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Born to Herd
Skyelark met her first sheep and remembered something no one ever taught her.
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The Slumber of Almost Living
Some places don't comfort you. They wake you up.
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Born in the Pause
The world stopped. We took remote work literally.
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Survival and Serenity
Life on Britain's most remote inhabited island, where the weather keeps the schedule.
