People of the 20th Century
GEORGE MACKAY BROWN

Orkney’s most acclaimed writer in the second half of the century, George Mackay Brown, was truly a man of Orkney.

He was born in Stromness and, apart from a spell in the 1950s when he went south to study, he seldom ventured far from his native islands or his home town.

And yet George Mackay Brown, or GMB as he was simply known to most, still achieved an international reputation as a poet, dramatist and novelist – culminating in 1994 with his novel Beside the Ocean of Time being short-listed for the Booker Prize.

Most of his output dated from his time at Mayburn Court, Stromness, where he stayed from 1967 until his death on Saturday, April 13, 1996. His funeral was on April 16 – St Magnus Day – the day commemorating Orkney’s saint.

During this period his work received many accolades, including the 1994 Saltire Scotsman Award for Scottish Book of the Year with Beside the Ocean of Time. In 1998 he was awarded the James Tait Black Prize for The Golden Bird.

Both within and outwith Orkney, GMB’s work was also read every week by thousands in his hugely popular weekly column “Under Brinkie’s Brae” in The Orcadian, after originally writing for the Orkney Herald.

George received many honours during his life, being awarded an OBE in 1974 and becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1977. Honorary doctorates came from the Open University, Hon MA in 1976l Hon LL.D from Dundee University in 1977 and an Hon D. Litt from Glasgow University in 1985.

After his death, long term friend and collaborator, Hoy-based composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies described him as “a staunchly supportive friend, and the most modest and unassuming of men, and an exemplary creator. “He must be the most positive and benign influence ever on my own efforts at creation.”

George’s popularity as a writer and inspiration to others has not diminished though, with three of his books being published posthumously within months of his death, including a selection of his late poems, Following a Lark.

George Mackay Brown’s name joined those of his other eminent fellow Orcadian writers when a plaque in his memory was erected in the east nave of St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall – a building he returned to often.