The Shetland Book

Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia

The Shetland Book is an important and influential 1967 publication from the Shetland Times, edited by Andrew T. Cluness, which arose out of the perception by the County Council Education Committee that a need existed for a textbook, "to give the pupils as wide a knowledge as its limits allow of their present environment and of the long history of human life and endeavour in and around their islands since Man first settled them," as Cluness writes in his preface.

The volume was split into three section: Geographical, Historical and Miscellaneous, and drew on the expertise of a number of specialists. Contributors included Samuel S. Polson (Geography), John Stewart (Place Names), R.S. Barclay (Population Statistics), Professor Gordon Donaldson (History), Laurence I. Graham (Biography), John Jamieson (Agriculture); Joan Anderson (Botany); Charles Calder (Archeology); Professor A.C. O'Dell (St. Ninian's Isle) and William P.L. Thomson (Geology).