PUBLISHED AUGUST 2025!
Jofrid Gunn tells the story of a woman who came from the Faroe Islands in the 16th century to marry into the Clan Gunn, in the north of Scotland. Inspired by the glimpses of lives found in archives, this is a biography in poetry. Each poem can be read individually, but when put together they tell the story of Jofrid’s life – descriptions of the incredible natural places she lived in, the power of the sea, her family life, encounters with the huldufólk or ‘hidden people’ of legend, and her small part in the clan battles and blood feuds of the time.
“Jofrid Gunn” was published in August 2025 by Shearsman Books. Buy direct from the publisher here: https://www.shearsman.com/store/Jennifer-Morag-Henderson-Jofrid-Gunn-p733972897
“Jofrid Gunn” was officially launched at events in Waterstones Inverness, and Swedenborg Hall, London. Current events are listed via the News / Events page, with the next talk at Inverness Field Club on 21st January 2026.
“Many of the poems read like passages of prayer, quiet and incantatory yet powerful and emotive. Henderson takes us on a sweeping journey… ” — Gutter magazine, Book of the Month August 2025
“If I had to choose one word to describe this very unusual book, that word would be ‘Beautiful’… Mine has been a visceral response to this work… I will read and re-read the poems so full of beauty and, yes, magic.” — Bunty Gunn, The Clan Gunn Herald
“A remarkable new book… an amazing fusion of folk-tale and iridescent poetry woven around a story set in Faroes and Scotland. [Henderson] writes so beautifully.” — Tim Ecott, author of “The Land of Maybe: A Faroe Islands Year”
“The poetry is precise, and evocative. Henderson has a real skill for bringing the historic to life… This is a powerful collection.” — The Bottle Imp magazine, Association for Scottish Literary Studies
“Jennifer Morag Henderson has already firmly established herself as an author of vital prose non-fiction, and it is a joy to see her moving so skilfully into the realm of poetry. What an assured, atmospheric, and potent debut this is! It takes great skill to match the ambition inherent within the rarefied genre of biographical poetry, but Jennifer triumphs. These poems are loaded with narrative, character, ideas, and empathy – reminiscent, at times, of the great George Mackay Brown. The poems are incantatory and elemental and lively and enthralling. They contain the uncontainable” — Kevin MacNeil
“A wonderfully vivid and evocative book that intertwines poetry, small passages of prose, geography, history, even music and an awareness of human ancestry… Its pages contain a moving and sensitive elegy to a past way of life, but it also does much more than that, immersing its readers into a world and existence that has largely disappeared from view.” — Donald S. Murray
“From the opening of this accomplished debut collection, we are with a poet who spins the lustre of her lyricism both through scholarly research and an intuitive, and innovative, sensitivity for specificity in language and tone as a meeting of the often-combative tides of diverse places and cultures. Henderson makes imminent not only the meaning of the runes but their musicality, tuning words, rhythm, metre and compelling characters to reflect the circling of seas between contesting ‘norths’: Scotland, the archipelagos of the North Sea and the Atlantic, and Faero.” — Cáit O’Neill McCullagh
Jennifer Morag Henderson 