Tim Lott (Family, 28 October) says he has “no idea why anyone in their right mind would want to raise children in any of these places [Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles], so cut off from the rest of the world that the children would be largely socialised by livestock”.
Apart from being rather offensive, his comment displays immense ignorance. I’ll leave the other island groups to make their own points but, as far as Orkney is concerned, Tim is presumably unaware of the St Magnus international arts festival; the Orkney International science festival; the Pier Arts Centre which is a partner of the Tate and has a collection that is officially recognised as of national significance to Scotland; other annual festivals for folk music, blues, rock and jazz, storytelling, drama, nature – even a fine wine festival; a wealth of archaeological sites that are of international interest, such as Skara Brae, Maes Howe, and the Ness of Brodgar; two fine museums. It also has excellent schools, fantastic scenery and wonderful beaches, a low crime rate, more-or-less affordable housing, and air that isn’t choked with traffic pollution.
And in case Tim thinks I don’t know what I’m missing, I moved here from London in my 30s, and am glad to have raised my daughter here.
Joanna Lawson
Stromness, Orkney
• Tim Lott’s own account of a dull suburban upbringing does not qualify him to judge the raising of children in a city as better than on a remote Scottish island. Surely the core value of a family’s placing, regardless of geography, is a sense of community and the support that comes from it, not a checklist of arts centres and worldwide ethnic representations, as he would suggest. I wonder if the rich heritage of folk music in Orkney and Shetland corresponds at all to his idea of culture, or indeed if he deems young people from those places different enough to “fit in” when they eventually decide to find out if city life is all it’s cracked up to be.
James Goodwin
Tórshavn, Faroe Islands
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