Arts / Cleanliness key as popular Ooricks series returns with new book Hirda
CHILDREN’s story writer Ann Marie Anderson collected around 400 kilograms of bruck from the shoreline in Whalsay last year, she reckons.
And this year’s haul alone has already reached around 50 kilos.
So it is perhaps little wonder that the next book in her Ooricks series, Hirda, revolves around the idea of collecting rubbish.
Hirda means ‘chaos and extreme untidiness’ in Shetland dialect, and the book extols the virtues of keeping things clean and tidy – both the landscape and indoors too.
With the self-published book set to be launched at an event at the Shetland Library on Sunday (6 April), it also happens to coincide with Da Voar Redd Up returning later this month.
Hirda is Anderson’s sixth book, with her last – Myrtle an Meenie – released in 2021.
It has taken a little while to come together, with work on Hirda actually starting around the same time as Myrtle an Meenie.
Things slowed down a little after Anderson’s Ooricks illustrator – and younger sister – Jenny Duncan considering calling time on creating drawings for the books.
“So I started drawing Hirda and I got three illustrations done and two coloured in…and that took me two years,” Anderson laughed.
Thankfully for her, Duncan ended up returning to the fold and provided her trademark watercolour images for the pages of Hirda.
The book was also helped along by a £4,000 grant from the Scottish Book Trust designed to promote Scots language.
All of her books are in Shetland dialect – something she is desperately keen to preserve.
Anderson was one of one of ten writers to receive the Scottish Government publishing grant, which is administered by the Scottish Book Trust.
“If it hadn’t been for the grant, I think folk would have had to have waited a long time for Hirda to come out, because the costs of printing a book now is more as doubled fae when I first started,” she said. “And I fund it all myself.
“You’re gaining nothing from it really – I sell one book and all that money will go back into doing another one. But if I didn’t love doing it, I wouldn’t be continuing on.”
Anderson’s first book was Da Ooricks, which was published in 2015 and introduced bairns to a new collective of endearing characters.
The history of the Ooricks reaches back further, though, to when Anderson started needle felting in 2011.
“I just wanted a peerie craft that I could just have on my lap up at the house,” she explained.
Fast forward a few years and she created a set of characters which she named peerie Ooricks – sparking her imagination and ultimately leading to the first book in collaboration with her illustrator sister.
From then onwards she published Ooricks in a Paet Hill and Smoot da Oorick, as well as two other stories – Da Fisherman’s Wife, illustrated by Jo Anderson, and Myrtle an Meenie, which saw Dirk Robertson provide the artwork.
Anderson said things have “just grown arms and legs” – and she now even has a shop in Whalsay where folk can buy Ooricks goodies and needle-felted crafts.
This shop is something of a shrine to Anderson’s imaginative creations, with original artwork for instance hanging proudly on the wall.
Things perhaps reached a peak for Anderson – in intensity, at least – around the release of Myrtle and Meenie in 2021.
It was combined with a massive launch event in the Mareel auditorium which was attended by hundreds of bairns and saw actors dress up as characters for a book reading – while The Revellers provided music too.
Anyone who was there will remember the deafening chants of witches spells like ‘oorie, moorie catticloo!’ – although if you missed out, it is available to watch back on YouTube.
Anderson said she was “nearly on tenterhooks” during the event as she read her book in front of hundreds.
“I’m blyde I did the big book launch, but it was a very nervewracking experience,” she added.
“After that my creative flow I think just vanished and that’s maybe why Hirda’s taken so long to come out.
“It was so huge, I just decided to crawl under a stane with my writing for a peerie while.”
As such, Anderson seems to be a bit more relaxed about this Sunday’s book launch for Hirda, which is set to be a more cosy and chilled out affair.
It will be held at the Shetland Library between 3pm and 4.30pm, with the writer set to host a book reading – while some of the Revellers will also be on hand to play some tunes too.
There will be other activities for bairns too, like colouring pages, a “dialect snap” and a scavenger hunt sheet which can be used afterwards to “entice peerie eens to win outside”.
Anderson hopes that the story behind Hirda will also encourage adults and bairns alike to head outdoors to clear up rubbish from the beaches and coastline – throughout the year too, and not just for the Voar Redd Up.
She said zipping up and heading outside with a bag or two is a “great way to shut off”.
“I put in my lug plugs and go out with my music and go gathering,” Anderson said, adding that the tunes which soundtrack her jaunts outside can range from Mongolian rockers The Hu to country music.
Bruck-gaddering has already inspired some of Anderson’s previous work; a (thankfully empty) bottle what appeared to be poison at the banks at Gruting ultimately ended up starting the thought process behind Myrtle an Meenie.
“Hopefully Hirda will send out the message that it doesn’t matter how peerie you are,” Anderson said, “you can still make a difference to keep Shetland boannie.”
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