John Walker's Shetland

This work examines the actions of the notorious John Walker.

A tiny baby in a leather bucket...A hot stone at a nursing mother's feet...This work offers snippets from the story of an eviction on a bitter winter's day in 1868.

The man behind the eviction was the Aberdonian John Walker, notorious factor for the Garth and Annsbrae Estate in Shetland.

The story was that of the author's great-grand parents who, with their infant daughter, had to make the cold, wet journey in a small, open boat.

The baby, their first-born, caught a chill and died aged six weeks. "I saw that the commons were of no use to the people, and were doing them harm", John Walker had declared.

Acquisition of the crofters' common grazing lay at the heart of his sheep farming ambitions.

But without it the crofters couldn't exist. This is the first book to examine the actions of "the Director General of Shetland", as Walker was nicknamed, or to look at his influence on so many aspects of life for both the poor, and not so poor, inhabitants of these islands.

We are also given glimpses of his exploits abroad, helping us to place the events unfolding in Shetland into a world-wide context.