The tight-knit community of the Shetland Isles is the setting for this engaging, often humorous and always revealing and informative autobiography of an engineering technician's career path. Billy Williamson paints a vivid picture of adaptability and collective spirit through harsh Shetland winters, first through twelve years working for the Highlands and Islands Film Guild setting up film shows in village halls with a range of technical and logistical problems to overcome. His later employment in marine electronics leads to a host of challenging roles as technology advances with numerous late nights and need for flexibility in serving a variety of customers. Not least, the regular contact with ships of different nationalities and associated linguistic challenges which motivated the author to achieve competence in both Norwegian and Russian and led to a rewarding broadening of horizons.