About the Book

The first North Sea oil flowed into Shetland a quarter of a century ago, and for the inhabitants of this remote island community, nothing would ever be the same again. Among the thousands of men and women who followed the oil to the islands was a young photographer called Tom Kidd.

Thanks to a Kodak bursary, Kidd spent nine months on the islands, documenting the cataclysmic eruption of activity in the late 1970s and its effect of the locals. "Life in Shetland: Photographs by Tom Kidd" was originally published in 1980.

In the summer of 2003, journalist, author and broadcaster Tom Morton, a long-standing admirer of Kidd's work, suggested they collaborate on a book which would revisit the beginnings of oil in Shetland, marking 25 years since the first "oil ashore". Morton, who lives in Shetland and first visited in 1978, was keen to see Kidd's long-lost Shetland photographs republished, along with others representing key moments in the islands' relationship with oil and a series of new pictures bring the story right up to date.

Kidd's archive turned out to include many forgotten photographs, some of which are now being seen for the first time. Morton carried out a series of interviews with men and women who had experienced the oil boom and all that has happened since, and Kidd shot portraits of them Morton's interviews were broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in late 2003.

Black Gold Tide brings those interviews together with Kidd's haunting photographs, both old and new, in an act of homage to the individuals who helped bring oil to Shetland, and yet preserved a way of life still unique in Europe.

The authors

		Tom Kidd is a helicopter pilot and photographer, but not at the same time. He has had a wide and varied career in photography, working for many national and international publications, and has exhibited widely. He has photographs in the collections of the Scottish Arts Council and the Victoria & Albert Museum. He lives in Helensburgh with his wife and son. He can be contacted via email at tomkidd@btinternet.com
		Tom Morton is an author, broadcaster and award-winning newspaper columnist. He has presented various shows for the BBC over the past decade, and currently hosts an acclaimed daily radio show on Radio Scotland. He lives in the Shetland Islands, where he keeps a pig and two St Bernards on the family croft. There were hens but the St Bernards ate them. He can be contacted via the BBC website or by email at tmaccalmanmorton@yahoo.ie
		Black Gold Tide is published by The Shetland Times Ltd, Gremista, Lerwick, Shetland ZE1 0PX www.shetland-times.co.uk