George Mackay Brown (17 October 1921 – 13 April 1996) was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist, whose work has a distinctly Orcadian character. He is considered one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century.
Biography
A Work for Poets
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
George Mackay Brown was born on 17 October 1921. The youngest of six children, his parents were John Brown, a tailor and postman, and Mhairi Mackay, who had been brought up in Braal, a hamlet near Strathy, Sutherland as a native Gaelic speaker.
Except for periods as a mature student on mainland Scotland, Brown lived all his life in the town of Stromness in the Orkney islands. Due to illness his father was restricted in his work and received no pension. The family had a history of depression and it is likely that Mackay's uncle, Jimmy Brown, committed suicide: his body was found in Stromness harbour in 1935.
A tale of 2 acts One in 1948 One in 62 There’s no justice in trade and industry Full of promise in integration Dissolves Precipitates resentment When the books that carry Were built by decorated arms In rain sodden yards Then the gulf appears wider Two islands colliding When the books that carry Were built by decorated arms In rain sodden yards The past gets coloured in I find it frightening When the books that carry Were built by decorated arms In rain sodden yards
An album by the “Banksy of classical music” that lay buried in Orkney for more than a year before being unearthed by fans has topped the UK classical chart... “I think poet George Mackay Brown would be rather tickled by this ... .
Erland Cooper buried his album in the ground for over a year (Picture. PA) ...Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence went straight to number one (Picture. PA) ... PA) ... ‘I think poet George Mackay Brown would be rather tickled by this ... More Trending ... MORE .
Black Patie ruled with ‘coercion, cruelty and tyranny’, and built himself a magnificent Renaissance palace ...Edwin Muir and George Mackay Brown ... Most popular ... ‘Orcadians are great lovers of war,’ wrote the 18th-centuryOrkney historian George Eunson ... .
Sweden’s mystical iron-age monument ... Ponder the competing theories of what the stones are ... Today, the area is a nature reserve ... Neolithic marvels in Pembrokeshire ... Photograph ... Read George Mackay Brown’s poem Swans at Brodgar to enhance the visiting vibe ... .
This new appreciation has seen a rise in media coverage of these special places ... In his 2021 composition Carve The Runes Then Be Content With Silence , he imaginatively commemorated the centenary of Oracdian poet George Mackay Brown ... .
‘Islands of stone’ would have been a good name for the Orkney archipelago, George Mackay Brown once wrote ...Less than a century ago, there were Orcadians sleeping in stone box beds ... It spoke to her, almost literally ... George Mackay Brown again. ... .
In the morning, if your backpack’s not too heavy, make a detour to BirsayBooks for a second-hand copy of The Orkneyinga Saga and particularly George Mackay Brown’s novel Magnus, which connects the violence and sanctity of the Norse world with today.
The Book of Phobias and Manias ...Kate Summerscale. Profile Books, pp ... Reading the entry on agoraphobia, I thought of the poet George Mackay Brown, an acute sufferer, who could sometimes hardly walk down the street for fear of houses collapsing on him ... .
Rutland Herald
18 May 2023
Rutland Herald
18 May 2023