Bargains! PROMOTIONS

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

An Island Rooing by Joan Grigsby at Abbey's Bookshop,
An Island Rooing
— —
Joan Grigsby Mary Blance

An Island Rooing

Joan Grigsby,  Mary Blance

$23.95   $21.97

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?
English
Michael Walmer
25 March 2026
Memoirs; Rural communities; Physical geography & topography; Classic travel writing
Series: Northus Shetland Classics
In April 1931, a young English sailor was sitting in a café in London, attempting to persuade a documentary film-maker that she was the perfect assistant for a stint of filming on a remote Shetland islet. Joan Grigsby was the applicant, with boat-handling skills and sterling practical capacities. Jenny Brown (later Gilbertson) was the film-maker, beginning her first shoot in a beloved location. Grigsby got the job…

An Island Rooing documents not only this brief early summer stay on the Isle of Stenness, but also Grigsby’s further solo adventures right through the season: staying with a crofting family in Heylor, and sampling the period of calling the sheep in from the hills, lambing, removal of their fleeces by hand (the rooing of the title); setting the tatties for the new crop, and hearing many stories around the fire at night about Shetland history and major events, including several tragic accounts of shipwreck; heading to Lerwick to explore the knitwear and fishing industries, including first-hand experience of being part of the crew of a drifter seeking their next big catch; befriending the gutting women onshore and learning that deceptively difficult skill.

Grigsby’s style is fluent, adventuresome and direct, both in terms of how she treats the world, and how she writes. This freedom and honesty shapes, in this her second book, a narrative full to brimming with vigour and character. An Island Rooing was first published in 1933.
By:  
Introduction by:  
Imprint:   Michael Walmer
Country of Publication:   Australia
Volume:   7
Dimensions:   Height: 203mm,  Width: 133mm, 
ISBN:   9781763870048
ISBN 10:   1763870049
Series:   Northus Shetland Classics
Pages:   206
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

See Also

An Island Rooing

Between Britain

Walking the History of England and...

Alistair Moffat

Hardback

$49.99 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
An Island Rooing

That Which Binds Us

Cathy Rigg

Paperback

$26.95  $24.18

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
An Island Rooing

The Accommodation of Democracy

A New Political Economy of Poverty...

Thibaud Marcesse (Assistant Professor...

Paperback

$64.95 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
An Island Rooing

Love for the Land

Lessons from Farmers Who Persist...

Brooks Lamb

Paperback

$30.95 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
An Island Rooing

Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered...

An incredibly charming and funny...

Maureen Johnson

Hardback

$29.99 

In Stock 😊

ADD +
An Island Rooing

The Warehouse of Bamiyan

Economic Life in Medieval Afghanistan...

Arezou Azad (Senior Research Fellow...

Hardback

$219 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +