A bibliographical study of a twentieth-century Orkney writer
“Harray Team Are First-night SCDA Winners.” Aberdeen Press and Journal, 25 February 1971, p. 3.
A report on the “first-night winners of Orkney’s three-night Scottish Community Drama Association festival which opened in the Arts Theatre, Kirkwall, last night,” which included a performance by Stromness Academy of GMB’s Witch.
GMB. “The Fires of Christmas.” Week-end Scotsman, 25 December 1971, p. 1.
Short story.
Voices of Our Kind: An Anthology of Contemporary Scottish Verse. Edinburgh: Saltire Society, 1971.
With a preface by Maurice Lindsay.
See GMB, “Wedding,” “The Old Women,” “Our Lady of the Waves,” and “The Finished House” (pp. 49–51).
Donaldson, Anne. “London Letter.” Glasgow Herald, 22 January 1971, p. 12. [Google]
“Two flutes, two piccolos, a harp, a vibra-harp, and a musical saw – this was one of the unusual combinations assembled the other evening to record music for ‘Orkney: three stories by George Mackay Brown,’ a drama production, filmed in Orkney, which will be seen on B.B.C.-1 in the spring.”
“Another Award for George M. Brown.” Orcadian, 25 November 1971, p. 1.
“George Mackay Brown, Stromness, is one of eight writers who have received Scottish Arts Council Publication Awards of £300 each for books of high literary merit, published during the past six months. ¶ ‘Fishermen with Ploughs’ (Hogarth) has secured for Mr Brown this second Scottish Arts Council award.”
“Orkney Play for T.V. on May 13.” Orcadian, 29 April 1971, p. 1.
“‘Orkney,’ by George Mackay Brown, will be one of a series of six new ‘Plays for Today’ which starts today (Thursday) on BBC.”
For a lengthy review, see “G.M.B.’s Orkney – Seen through T.V. Eyes,” Orcadian, 20 May 1971, p. 5.
“Adjudicator’s Praise for Two Schools: Stromness S.W.R.I. Top Drama Festival with George M. Brown Play.” Orcadian, 4 March 1971, pp. 1, 4.
The winner of this year’s Orkney Drama Festival was The Storm Watchers by GMB; his Witch was another competitor.
E.W.M. [Ernest Marwick]. “School Mag. Reports on Filming for T.V. of G.M.B. Stories.” Orcadian, 25 February 1971, p. 4.
An account of the Stromnessian, the school magazine of Stromness Academy, with emphasis on its recent report about the filming on Orkney of three stories by GMB for television.
GMB. “Orkney: The Girl.” New Edinburgh Review, no. 14 (August–September 1971): 28–33.
Short story, illustrated with two photographs. Footnote: “Orkney: The Girl is to appear in Whither Scotland?, a collection of essays edited by Duncan Glen, published this month by Gollancz.”
Bailey, Patrick. Orkney. The Islands Series. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971.
See pp. 167–68. “Although George Mackay Brown writes about Orkney people and the Orkney scene with profound understanding of the life of past times, his message concerns the universal state of man. In consequence he cannot be regarded as a purely local writer” (p. 68).
The Orcadian Poet George Mackay Brown Reads His Poems and a Story. Baile Átha Cliath, Eire: Claddagh Records, 1971.
An LP recorded in Stromness, July 1971. The story is “Witch” (excerpts). The poems are: “The Old Woman,” “The Death of Peter Essen,” “The Stranger,” “Hamnavoe,” “Elegy,” “Chapel Between Cornfield and Shore,” “The Poet,” “Old Fisherman with Guitar,” “Hamnavoe Market,” “Country Girl,” “The Sailor, the Old Woman and the Girl,” “Stations of the Cross,” “Taxman,” “Fiddlers at the Wedding,” “Foldings,” “The Laird’s Falcon,” A Child’s Calendar,” “Girl,” “Fisherman’s Bride,” “The Coat,” “Sea Orpheus,” “Tinkers,” “Runes from the Island of Horses,” and “Kirkyard.”
In the sleeve notes, GMB comments on the Scandinavian and Celtic influences on his poetry. “I try often to suggest the swift dangerous rhythms of the sea, and (even more important) the slow dark fruitful rhythm of the earth from seedtime to harvest. . . . The bread that is the result of the crofter’s hard labour on the earth is a recurring symbol: meaning the simple nourishment of the body, and the mysterious sign of the godhead.”
Copies: British Library — National Library of Scotland [LP.516]. — Scottish Poetry Library [st 3.Bro.].
Linklater, Eric. Orkney and Shetland: An Historical, Geographical, Social and Scenic Survey. 2nd ed. London: Robert Hale, 1971.
See pp. 91 (“A much younger poet, George Mackay Brown, has lately shown a fine capacity for transferring visual images to verse”), 256–58, 260–61.
King, Charles, ed. Twelve Modern Scottish Poets. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1971.
See pp. 154–66: the editor’s introduction, followed by GMB’s “Unlucky Boat,” “Our Lady of the Waves,” “Old Fisherman with Guitar,” “Hamnavoe Market,” “Snow: From a Hospital,” “The Heavenly Stones,” “The Hawk,” “Country Girl,” “Haddock Fishermen,” “Winter Bride,” and “Warped Boat.”
The book also appeared in several later editions, the most recent of which was published in 1986.
Timperley, Rosemary, ed. The Seventh Ghost Book. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1971.
GMB, “Sarah,” pp. 25–49.
Bruce, George, Maurice Lindsay, and Edwin Morgan, eds. Scottish Poetry: Number Six. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, [1971].
Includes “Nine Poems of Rognvald Kolson, Earl of Orkney (c. 1099–1154)” (pp. 9– 13) by GMB.
George Mackay Brown 