No, dear reader, I haven’t moved to Shetland – but this year I thought I’d share my love for these magical isles a little more. My last postcard from Shetland was from the Scalloway Fire Festival – the first Up Helly Aa of the winter. This time, I thought I’d share the delights of the summer months. Experiencing the long days of summer in Shetland is like experiencing them nowhere else in Britain.

Shetland lies at roughly 60 degrees north latitude – the same as parts of Alaska, Greenland and St Petersburg. But here, thanks to the Gulf Stream, it’s much milder. That far north, in summer, the days stretch endlessly.

At the height of summer, in June and July, darkness barely falls. The locals call it the Simmer Dim – the sun dips just below the horizon but never truly sets, and it stays light for nearly 19 hours a day. It’s an otherworldly experience, and surely a fair reward for enduring the long, dark winters.