(courtesy Hachette Australia)
Dreams are supposed to come true at Christmas.
Or Christmas adjacent, at the very least; that is the idea behind many a Christmas-based novel and it’s very much the case with Erin Green’s From Shetland, With Love at Christmas which is infused to its tree-topping star with the idea that new beginnings are possible, all through the year certainly but most especially at the most wonderful time of the year.
Why is that you might wonder?
After all, while Christmas is all kinds of visual and intangible warm-and-fuzzy wonderful, and it offers a delicious escapism from the rigours of the workaday world, it just some more days on the calendar, right?
Ah, well, see that is where a true Christmas-a-holic will disagree with you because while you can apply all kinds of rational thought and intellectual rigour to evaluating the idea that the festive season has some kind of unique magical spark, the truth is that Christmas exists in some special place just out of reach of the realm of the grimy and the uninspired.
Maybe it’s the religious base story that got it all started, maybe it’s the talk of peace and goodwill to all people, or perhaps it’s simply the tinselly bling and the lavish decorations that turn ordinary environments into something from a fantasy wonderland.
‘Done?’ says Isaac. ‘Or are you waiting for a glass on bubbles?’
‘No bubbles for me. Let’s get busy and see what we can do!’ I [Nessie] say, as we gratefully return to the warmth of the forge.
Whatever it is, it’s a delight, and Green allows every last millimetre of it to infuse From Shetland, With Love at Christmas which tells the stories of entrepreneurial knitter and runaway older mum Verity, blacksmith Nessie who wants to uphold family tradition and make her grandfather especially proud, and nineteen-year-old business student Isla who’s a talented baker and who treasures her grandmother’s book of recipes.
These three women may not sound like the sorts of people who will became firm and fast friends, but as they settle into their time at the Gallery, Lerwick Manor, which has converted its stables and out buildings into a home for an expansive range of artists to play their wares and practise their craft, they discover that they matter to each other and that they might be the answer to issues each is facing.
Apportioning equal chapter time to each of the women, all of whom are beautifully and fully rendered and who are given plenty of time to have their stories told, From Shetland, With Love at Christmas takes us deep into the idea that new starts are impossible and often when you least expect them.
Verity, of course, is the one really hoping for a major new start; a single mum since her deadbeat husband abandoned her 17 years earlier with three young sons including a baby, she was worked hard to keep the family together, loved, fed and cared for, and decides that now is the time to chuck in her job and fulfill her dream of creating the Barn Yarn, passing on the gift for moulding wool into all kinds of loved items like kids’ clothes and blankets that her grandmother gave her.
(courtesy official Erin Green Facebook page)
Part of a loving but very opinionated family that employs peer pressure to an almost diabolical degree, Verity sets everything up over a year until one day she jumps on a plane to Shetland to have a much delayed gap year which will take the form of a whole lot knitting and crocheting and artistic fulfillment.
This is her big chance and she’s not giving it up for anybody, and while she’s not looking for love, she might just find that with handsomely rugged sheep farmer, Magnus, who might the icing of a rich and wonderful new beginnings cake.
Nessie isn’t looking for love either, though it may yet find her in the form of Isaac, her sweet, kind childhood friend and glass blowing stablemate, with her singular focus on reviving the family tradition of blacksmithing and making a go of a traditional craft that doesn’t have as much practical call as it once did.
It matters a great deal to her to make this happen, not simply because of the craft itself but because she’s eager to prove that a woman can make a go of what is traditionally seen as a male-based craft.
She’s a got a lot to prove to herself and others as does lovely Isla whose cakes are perfection itself, who’s determined to prove she can run the café at the Orangery to manor owners Ned and new wife Jemima, a business whiz who brings new life to an old setting, and who’s studying business so she can turn a passion into a profitable business.
I also can’t say how long we kiss, when Magnus reaches the final water bucket. I know the wooden tongs fall to the floor, my disastrous fleece is trampled underfoot, and we christen the lounge, shower and bedroom for longer than it takes to dye wool.
It’s not all smooth sailing for Isla with a troublesome ex causing some real trouble for her but as you dive further and further into the hopefully transformative delights of From Shetland, With Love at Christmas, you get the feeling that she, along with Verity and Nessie will find their dreams do come true, and that along the way they will find rich and enduring friendship with each other.
It’s a sweetly seductive idea that reflects the need we all have to belong to a found family that has your back and holds your dreams almost as carefully as you do, and for the hope that burns within us that we will live out the innate essence of who we are and not simply remain trapped in life’s endless and ceaseless momentum.
All three women want their moment in the existential sun and they get it, through months and months of beautifully laid out expositional richness, much of which takes place at Christmas, which doesn’t fundamentally change how they are remaking their lives themselves, but which provides a heady, hopeful backdrop full of festive vim & vigour and decoratively hopeful beauty for their dreams to find their full and richly alive expression.
From Shetland, With Love at Christmas is a festive love letter to female empowerment, to the rich and supportive bonds of friendship and to the magically transformative power of the season to alter everything to maybe not a perfect form but a promising and exciting new start, one which will lead to great places with love, community and a sense that new beginnings are possible powering the way.