Winds of Change — Michael James

Shetland: Britain's most northerly outpost. A land of Bronze Age Man, the Vikings, the Scottish merchant-lairds. But what of the future? It is May 3013. Nathan Dei, ornithologist, photographer, philosopher and reluctant political animal, gets embroiled in the debate on Scottish independence. The vote is more than a year away, and already he's sick of the whole thing. But living in Shetland, it's hard to escape. In between his birding expeditions, he starts to think how his adopted home should navigate this shake-up. What would be the best outcome? There is North Sea oil, of course, but that's less than half the story. His father was a member of the Shetland Islands Council, his beautiful partner works for them, and Nathan is gradually sucked into the fray. He starts to feel driven to engage, not least because of old friends, loyalties. And there is always the nagging question: How would those old friends have felt about letting this chance to better their homeland's future pass them by? How would previous generations of Islanders, those who'd been oppressed, 'cleared', treated as human impedimenta, have viewed such a betrayal?