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George Mackay Brown (17 October 1921 - 13 April 1996), was a Scottish
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 poet
Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, author and dramatist, whose work has a distinctly Orcadian character. He is considered one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century.
ge Mackay Brown was the youngest of six children, born to Mhairi Mackay and John Brown on the 17th of October 1921. Except for a spell as a mature student in mainland Scotland, Mackay Brown lived all of his life in Stromness
Stromness

Stromness /'str?mn?s/ is the second-largest town in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, and is located in the south-west of the Mainland, Orkney of Orkney....
 in the Orkney Islands
Orkney Islands

Orkney is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated 10 miles north of the coast of Caithness. Orkney comprises over 70 islands; around 20 are inhabited....
.






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George Mackay Brown (17 October 1921 - 13 April 1996), was a Scottish
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 poet
Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, author and dramatist, whose work has a distinctly Orcadian character. He is considered one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century.

Biography

George Mackay Brown was the youngest of six children, born to Mhairi Mackay and John Brown on the 17th of October 1921. Except for a spell as a mature student in mainland Scotland, Mackay Brown lived all of his life in Stromness
Stromness

Stromness /'str?mn?s/ is the second-largest town in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, and is located in the south-west of the Mainland, Orkney of Orkney....
 in the Orkney Islands
Orkney Islands

Orkney is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated 10 miles north of the coast of Caithness. Orkney comprises over 70 islands; around 20 are inhabited....
. His youth was marked by severe poverty and it was from this time that he was affected by tuberculosis
Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacterium, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis . Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect the central nervous system, the lymphatic system, the circulatory system, the genitourinary system, the gastrointestinal system, bones, joints, and even the...
. This illness kept him from entering the army at the start of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 and it afflicted him to such an extent that he could not live a normal working life, however, it was because of this that he had the time and space in which to write. In 1948, alcohol was first allowed on the island and Mackay Brown first tasted alcohol, which he found to be "a revelation; they flushed my veins with happiness; they washed away all cares and shyness and worries. I remember thinking to myself 'If I could have two pints of beer ever afternoon, life would be a great happiness'". Subsequently he was to suffer from alcoholism for the rest of his life. As a mature student, he studied at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh founded in 1582, is an internationally renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom....
 and at Newbattle Abbey College where he met Edwin Muir
Edwin Muir

Edwin Muir was an Orcadian poet, novelist and noted translator born on a farm in Deerness on the Orkney Islands. Remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry in plain, unostentatious language with few stylistic preoccupations, Muir is a significant modern poet....
 who would have a great influence on his life as a writer. When he died in 1996, he was buried with a gravestone which bore an inscription from one of his poems:
To have carved on the days of our vanity
A sun
A ship
A star
A cornstalk


Also a few marks
From an ancient forgotten time
A child may read


That not far from the stone
A well might open for wayfarers


Here is a work for poets-
Carve the runes
Then be content with silence


Work

Mackay Brown gained most of his inspiration from his native islands, in poems, stories and novels which ranged through time. He drew on the Iceland
Iceland

Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland , is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland....
ic Orkneyinga Saga
Orkneyinga saga

The Orkneyinga saga is a unique historical narrative of the history of the Orkney Islands, Scotland, from their capture by the Norway king in the ninth century onwards until about 1200....
, especially in his novel Magnus. In 1961, he entered the Roman Catholic Church; he drew much inspiration from the traditional Latin liturgy, monasticism and the history of the medieval Church in Orkney.

He was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1994 for his Beside the Ocean of Time and won the 1987 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
James Tait Black Memorial Prize

Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards....
 for "The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories". His autobiography
Autobiography

An autobiography is a biography written by its subject . The term was first used by the poet Robert Southey in 1809 in the English language Periodical publication Quarterly Review, but the form goes back to antiquity....
, For the Islands I Sing, was published shortly after his death. A biography George Mackay Brown: The Life by Maggie Fergusson was published in 2006.

Composer Peter Maxwell Davies
Peter Maxwell Davies

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Order of the British Empire , is an English composer and Conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music....
 collaborated with Mackay Brown for many of his Orkney-inspired works.

Selected Works


Poetry

  • The Storm (1954)
  • Loaves and Fishes (1959)
  • The Year of the Whale (1965)
  • Fishermen with Ploughs (1971)
  • Poems New and Selected (1971)
  • Winterfold (1976)
  • Voyages (1983)
  • The Wreck of the Archangel (1989)
  • Tryst on Egilsay
    Egilsay

    Egilsay is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, lying east of Rousay. The island is largely Farmland and is known for its corncrakes....
     (1989)
  • Brodgar Poems (1992)
  • Foresterhill
    Foresterhill

    Foresterhill is an area in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It is the site of the city's main hospitals , as well as the medical school and medical science departments of the University of Aberdeen....
     (1992)
  • Following a Lark (1996)
  • Water (1996)
  • Travellers (2001)
  • Collected Poems (2005)


Short stories

  • A Calendar of Love (1967)
  • A Time to Keep (1969)
  • Hawkfall (1974)
  • The Sun's Net (1976)
  • Andrina and Other Stories (1983)
  • The Masked Fisherman and Other Stories (1989)
  • The Sea-King's Daughter (1991)
  • Winter Tales (1995)
  • The Island of the Women and Other Stories (1998)


Plays


  • A Spell for Green Corn (1970)
  • Three Plays: The Loom of Light, The Well and The Voyage of Saint Brandon (1984)


Novels

  • Greenvoe (1972)
  • Magnus
    Magnus (novel)

    Magnus is a novel by the Orcadian author George Mackay Brown. His second novel, it was published in 1973. it is a fictional account of the life and execution of the Tenth century Saint, Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney....
     (1973)
  • Time in a Red Coat (1984)
  • The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories (1987) won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
    James Tait Black Memorial Prize

    Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards....
     for fiction.
  • Vinland
    Vinland (novel)

    Vinland, published in 1992 by George Mackay Brown, is a historical novel set in the Orkney Islands in the early 11th Century. It derives its name from a voyage the protagonist takes to that faraway land in the west....
     (1992)
  • Beside the Ocean of Time
    Beside the Ocean of Time

    Beside the Ocean of Time is a novel by Scottish writer George Mackay Brown. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and judged Scottish Book of the Year by the Saltire Society....
     (1994) shortlisted for Booker Prize and judged Scottish Book of the Year by the Saltire Society
    Saltire Society

    The Saltire Society was established in 1936 to encourage everything that might improve the quality of life in Scotland and restore the country to its proper place as a creative force in European civilisation....


Essays and Autobiography

  • An Orkney Tapestry (1969)
  • Letters from Hamnavoe (1975)
  • Under Brinkie's Brae (1979)
  • Portrait of Orkney (1981)
  • Rockpools and Daffodils: An Orcadian Diary, 1979-91 (1992)
  • For the Islands I Sing: An Autobiography (1997)
  • Stained Glass Windows (1998)
  • Northern Lights (1999) (Includes Poetry)
  • The First Wash of Spring (2006)


Children's Stories

  • The Two Fiddlers (1974)
  • Pictures in the Cave (1977)
  • Six Lives of Fankle the Cat (1980)


Discography

  • For the islands I sing a collection of poems and short stories produced in 2006 by Orkney Aye a Young Enterprise
    Young Enterprise

    Young Enterprise is a not-for-profit business and enterprise education Charitable organization in the United Kingdom. It is made up of 12 regional organisations, each operating individually under a license agreement....
     Scotland company . It includes previously unpublished recordings of the author reading his own works.


External links