Mary Blance

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Mary Blance, Shetland author, broadcaster and cultural activist, was born in North Roe in 1950, attended school in Lerwick, then studied at Aberdeen University. She joined BBC Radio Shetland in November 1978, as secretary/receptionist, eighteen months after the station was launched. She was the first member of staff to broadcast in 'da Midder Tongue', and became committed to ensuring that Shetland dialect was an integral part of speech programmes on the local station. Her double act with the poet Rhoda Bulter, as the fictional 'Tamar and Beenie', was an early highlight of the radio station, and Mary's 'In Aboot Da Nicht' series of interviews recorded many key Shetland voices and their memories.

Mary took early retirement from the BBC in 2000, having worked her way through being station assistant, then producer, to the heights of Senior Producer and Senior Presenter over the years. She has been active in various cultural initiatives and currently chairs Shetland ForWirds, a group dedicated to the continuing use and promotion of the dialect. She is a regular contributor to Shetland media and, with her wide knowledge and passionate commitment, one of Shetland's contemporary cultural treasures.