Shetland author on her darkest moments
Best-seller on why loss of her husband helped her decide to close the chapter on acclaimed island crime series – Shetland and Vera author Ann Cleeves
Shetland
author Ann Cleeves has told how writing has helped her through her darkest year after losing her husband.
The best-selling novelist says it feels right that her next book in the popular series will be the last after Tim’s death in December 2017.
Wild Fire will be her last Shetland novel when it is published this month and Ann admits it closes a chapter, both personally and professionally.
“The timing felt absolutely right. I think I would have struggled to write more Shetland books after Tim’s death,” she said.
“I met him in Fair Isle, we spent so many times in Shetland together and I was with him when I had the idea for the first book.
“I went back with a friend last March and it was a really moving, but good, thing to do.
“Everyone was very sad for me and full of memories of Tim. They were beautiful to hear.”
The couple met on Fair Isle and Tim proposed there back in 1976. Ann was just finishing Wild Fire at the time when he died suddenly in December 2017 after being admitted to hospital for a heart condition.
She said: “My writing helped enormously, as did reading. I found it incredibly useful to go into another world and forget for a little while.
“I was also doing the copy edits for Wild Fire when Tim died and I couldn’t just curl up in a ball and hide away. Having something meticulous to do that didn’t need any imagination was just what I needed.”
Ann also had the comfort of her two daughters Sarah and Ruth, who live near her in the north-east of England, and the joy brought by her six grandchildren.
Friends and family have rallied round and their support has also helped Ann to cope with the loss of Tim, a well-known ornithologist.
“It would have been incredibly hard without them,” admitted Ann. “Tim had a great capacity for making friends and they have become my friends. They’re still looking after me and looking out for me.
“Tim was always away somewhere with his ornithology and I was travelling with work, so when we came back together we had lots to talk about.
“It must be so hard if you’re one of those couples who never spend a night apart.”
Ann, 64, spoke of her loss as the popular series based on her best-selling books returns to BBC1