Based on his best-selling book The Salt Roads, John Goodlad tells the extraordinary story of how salt fish from Shetland became one of Europe’s staple foods, powered an economic boom, and inspired artists, writers and musicians. For more than 300 years Shetland was at the centre of a fascinating salt fish-trading network that connected these remote islands to the rest of Europe. This captivating story is told through the lives of many remarkable people, the fishers, the merchants, and the exporters, ordinary people who led quite extraordinary lives. 

View the full RSGS 2025-26 programme of talks