"my holdfast in such wild water"

On Sunday I sat glued to Radio 4 to hear something I had waited all week for- the Echo Chamber with a visit to the poet Jen Hadfield in Shetland. I had never heard of her before. She won the T.S Eliot prize for poetry in 2008 and the radio programme featured poems from her recent collection Byssus meaning a mussel's beard or the threads which anchor it. The sounds of Shetland, the cries of seabirds, the swash and backwash of the shore and Jen's own voice made for an enchanting half hour. If you get the chance listen here.