TALK: Shetlanders by Penny Post - Ken Carpenter
Tuesday, July 9th 2024 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Auditorium, Shetland Museum and Archives
Tickets £5
The recently published book, Shetlanders by Penny Post: The Mathewson Family Letters, 1850-1880, is an account of ordinary people, who wrote extraordinary letters. Never before had such a family written and kept more than 1,800 letters, and never in more recent times would a family do so.
Thanks to the letters we can know intimately the Mathewsons of Yell; and because they eagerly passed on news of others, we know details about others, even who had the measles and who was courting whom.
In Shetlanders by Penny Post, Carpenter adds only minimal editorial content to the letter extracts, but in this lecture he steps into a new role. He will tell you what he believes the letters reveal generally about Shetland society and the minds of the Mathewsons 150 years ago.
Copies of the book will also be available to purchase on the night.
Category: Lectures