COLIN: They came up with it during Inga Stenbridge’s time at the council. It was sold to us as an island-patriot emblem and the take-up was huge. Islanders like to support each other. The original press release said red for England, blue for Scotland, a scallop shell for our nautical economy, and a W for the shape of the archipelago’s islands. What does that say to you?

JUDGE: The W is symbolic of the islands’ geography, and inclusive of—

COLIN: Not inclusive. Subversive. Look at it another way and all you see is a triangle of red on a background of blue.

JUDGE: By which you mean?

COLIN: A white W for women. A red V for . . .

Inga had also wanted to meet Colin in the museum café because by then it, too, had experienced a renaissance. Things were changing, was her point.

JUDGE: How exactly did Eva change things at the museum? I haven’t quite followed the process.

INGA: She was on the Board of Trustees. She pushed for the appointment of Felicity, and everything else flowed from there. She really enjoyed rewriting all the exhibits. It’s amazing how much had been missed out, under the previous guy, Denis Morris.

JUDGE: But the museum was a publicly-funded body.

INGA: Yes, exactly, so Eva had to proceed with caution. Everything she couldn’t do there, she did on Skellar instead, with the Archipelago Women’s Club.

The idea of a women’s club or retreat had been part of Eva’s thinking from the start. But it was hard to make it work. Inga, Jen and she tried operating it in an informal and unstructured way from an empty farmhouse on the outskirts of Ayrness, next to the distillery. But in the winter, heating proved a problem – the whole of the downstairs was flagged in stone. Also, the house was a fifteen-minute walk from the nearest bus route.

‘It’s nothing better than a chilly version of the Islands of Women Study Centre,’ Jen complained.

‘The Athenaeum has leather armchairs and green velvet curtains,’ Eva said. ‘And an art collection. I went there once with Harry.’

‘For fuck’s sake, that’s unfair,’ said Inga.

INGA: We met Queenie Miller, wife of the Glaswegian surgeon who had bought the island of Skellar, at a fundraising event for the Islands of Women Study Centre. Eva was really clever how she brought Queenie onside, and also the nuns of Papa Astrid – the two islands are only ten minutes apart, by motorboat. Her main investor was a female-run group of Icelandic venture capitalists, Aud Deep Mind. Queenie provided the island; the female entrepreneurs’ fund, Archipelago Women in Work, offered further money and guidance; and the nuns were the workforce. Eva was co-financier. Theirs were the names which went down on all the business papers, and eventually on AWC’s letterhead and branding: Queenie Miller, the nuns of Papa Astrid & Eva Levi. It was an excellent money-making venture.