Ann Cleeves has lost half of her new novel after her laptop went missing (Picture: Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Images)
Crime writer Ann Cleeves has sent out an appeal for help after losing a laptop containing the draft of half of her next novel in a blizzard in Shetland.
The 68-year-old, whose books have been adapted into the television series Vera and Shetland, fears the laptop fell from her bag as she made her way home from a local library where she was working on her next novel.
Ann is offering a reward for the return of the laptop, though said it is probably buried under ‘a foot of snow’ by now as the islands have been hit by severe wintry weather.
The Scottish Government declared a major incident for Shetland on Tuesday after thousands of homes were left without power on Monday evening following significant snowfall.
She tweeted about the missing laptop on Tuesday, writing to her followers: ‘Shetland tweeps I need your help! Lost my laptop in the blizzard y’day.
‘I’d been to @ShetlandLibrary & @MareelShetland but no sign there. Scruffy HP. Could have fallen from bag. Half novel there. Reward offered!
Ann’s books Vera and Shetland have been adapted for TV (Picture: David Empson/REX/Shutterstock)
‘I had emailed the book to myself as an attachment a few days ago. But I would love to get my computer back!!!’
However, fans shouldn’t fear too much about the progress of Ann’s book as she had recently emailed herself an attachment containing what she had been working on, so has not lost too much work.
Shetland has suffered severe wintry weather, with Ann guessing her laptop is buried under ‘a foot of snow’ (Picture: Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks)
The writer told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland on Wednesday: ‘I went into work in the library in Lerwick, I’ve got great friends there with the librarians, and then walked from there in a total blizzard to Mareel the arts centre, where I was having a meeting because we’re going to hold a crime writing festival in June and it was a meeting to discuss Shetland Noir, and it was very noir that day, and then the weather just got worse and worse.
‘I needed to get home early and I think I must have either left my laptop there or it fell out of my bag while I was struggling through the wind and the snow to get from the library to the arts centre.
‘Nobody has found it yet and I think to be fair it has snowed so much since I lost it that it’s probably under about a foot of snow wherever it is.
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‘People have been amazingly kind, I’ve been getting responses from all over Lerwick.
‘But luckily my latest book that I’ve been working on, I had sent it as an email attachment to myself just a couple of days ago so I’ve not lost too much.’
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She is offering a reward if she gets the computer back.
