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An Orkney Tapestry
First published in 1969, An Orkney Tapestry, George Mackay Brown's seminal work, is a unique look at Orkney through the eye of a poet. Originally commissioned by his publisher as an introduction to the Orkney Islands, Brown approached the writing from a unique perspective and went on to produce a rich fusion of ballad, folk tale, short story, drama and environmental writing. The book, written at an early stage in the author’s career, explores themes that appear in his later work and was a landmark in Brown’s development as a writer. Above all, it is a celebration of Orkney's people, language and history. This edition reproduces Sylvia Wishart’s beautiful illustrations, commissioned for the original hardback. Made available again for the first time in over 40 years, this new edition sits alongside Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain as an important precursor of environmental writing by the likes of Kathleen Jamie, Robert Macfarlane, Malachy Tallack and, most recently, Amy Liptrot.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
21 people are currently reading
165 people want to read
About the author
George Mackay Brown
183 books100 followersGeorge Mackay Brown, the poet, novelist and dramatist, spent his life living in and documenting the Orkney Isles.
A bout of severe measles at the age of 12 became the basis for recurring health problems throughout his life. Uncertain as to his future, he remained in education until 1940, a year which brought with it a growing reality of the war, and the unexpected death of his father. The following year he was diagnosed with (then incurable) Pulmonary Tuberculosis and spent six months in hospital in Kirkwall, Orkney's main town.
Around this time, he began writing poetry, and also prose for the Orkney Herald for which he became Stromness Correspondent, reporting events such as the switching on of the electricity grid in 1947. In 1950 he met the poet Edwin Muir, a fellow Orcadian, who recognised Mackay Brown's talent for writing, and would become his literary tutor and mentor at Newbattle Abbey College, in Midlothian, which he attended in 1951-2. Recurring TB forced Mackay Brown to spend the following year in hospital, but his experience at Newbattle spurred him to apply to Edinburgh University, to read English Literature, returning to do post-graduate work on Gerard Manley Hopkins.
In later life Mackay Brown rarely left Orkney. He turned to writing full-time, publishing his first collection of poetry, The Storm, in 1954. His writing explored life on Orkney, and the history and traditions which make up Orkney's distinct cultural identity. Many of his works are concerned with protecting Orkney's cultural heritage from the relentless march of progress and the loss of myth and archaic ritual in the modern world. Reflecting this, his best known work is Greenvoe (1972), in which the permanence of island life is threatened by 'Black Star', a mysterious nuclear development.
Mackay Brown's literary reputation grew steadily. He received an OBE in 1974 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1977, in addition to gaining several honorary degrees. His final novel, Beside the Ocean of Time (1994) was Booker Prize shortlisted and judged Scottish Book of the Year by the Saltire Society. Mackay Brown died in his home town of Stromness on 13th April 1996.
He produced several poetry collections, five novels, eight collections of short stories and two poem-plays, as well as non-fiction portraits of Orkney, an autobiography, For the Islands I Sing (1997), and published journalism.
Read more at:
http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org....
A bout of severe measles at the age of 12 became the basis for recurring health problems throughout his life. Uncertain as to his future, he remained in education until 1940, a year which brought with it a growing reality of the war, and the unexpected death of his father. The following year he was diagnosed with (then incurable) Pulmonary Tuberculosis and spent six months in hospital in Kirkwall, Orkney's main town.
Around this time, he began writing poetry, and also prose for the Orkney Herald for which he became Stromness Correspondent, reporting events such as the switching on of the electricity grid in 1947. In 1950 he met the poet Edwin Muir, a fellow Orcadian, who recognised Mackay Brown's talent for writing, and would become his literary tutor and mentor at Newbattle Abbey College, in Midlothian, which he attended in 1951-2. Recurring TB forced Mackay Brown to spend the following year in hospital, but his experience at Newbattle spurred him to apply to Edinburgh University, to read English Literature, returning to do post-graduate work on Gerard Manley Hopkins.
In later life Mackay Brown rarely left Orkney. He turned to writing full-time, publishing his first collection of poetry, The Storm, in 1954. His writing explored life on Orkney, and the history and traditions which make up Orkney's distinct cultural identity. Many of his works are concerned with protecting Orkney's cultural heritage from the relentless march of progress and the loss of myth and archaic ritual in the modern world. Reflecting this, his best known work is Greenvoe (1972), in which the permanence of island life is threatened by 'Black Star', a mysterious nuclear development.
Mackay Brown's literary reputation grew steadily. He received an OBE in 1974 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1977, in addition to gaining several honorary degrees. His final novel, Beside the Ocean of Time (1994) was Booker Prize shortlisted and judged Scottish Book of the Year by the Saltire Society. Mackay Brown died in his home town of Stromness on 13th April 1996.
He produced several poetry collections, five novels, eight collections of short stories and two poem-plays, as well as non-fiction portraits of Orkney, an autobiography, For the Islands I Sing (1997), and published journalism.
Read more at:
http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org....
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 1, 2024
An intricately crafted portrait of the Orkney Islands, beautifully woven together from history, legend, folk lore, poems and ballads (many in Scots, slowing the pace for the reader, but turning the path richer), plays, and drawings. Lamentably, this treasurable book from 1969 appears to have been out of print a small eternity. Open its pages, though, an a much greater eternity spreads itself before you - as bracing as a long walk along an Orcadian shoreline in wintertime.
January 27, 2015
I can’t remember when I began reading this book; “a fate-blown wisp to a pearl of incalculable price” (p.55). It became one of those books whose destiny was to be picked up periodically; but only a page or two, or four, or seven, read at any one sitting.
I rarely read short (211 pages) books so slowly. I like to get my mind into a book, stay with it, and see it through to a satisfactory closure in a matter of days. But this book had other ideas, and would brook no disobedience from me. The written words between the covers chastised me to remember that there is time and place to pause, to think, to sigh over, to question, and to conjecture & find answers; and that this book wanted nothing more than to sit quietly in the background to my life, occasionally tapping on my shoulder; and that it had laid down that decision and would brook no opposition from me.
No hurry, no hurry. I mulled over accounts of long, ago; and of legends of very long, long ago. Of observation of the human condition, and, above all, social custom, ritual and a dry humour formed from the very fabric and rhythms of island life in the North. In plays, in poetry, and in prose this book affirms Life as lived in the real world; a world far away from the life of selfish ‘what can I get for me’ that we too frequently label present-day ‘civilisation.’
I rarely read short (211 pages) books so slowly. I like to get my mind into a book, stay with it, and see it through to a satisfactory closure in a matter of days. But this book had other ideas, and would brook no disobedience from me. The written words between the covers chastised me to remember that there is time and place to pause, to think, to sigh over, to question, and to conjecture & find answers; and that this book wanted nothing more than to sit quietly in the background to my life, occasionally tapping on my shoulder; and that it had laid down that decision and would brook no opposition from me.
No hurry, no hurry. I mulled over accounts of long, ago; and of legends of very long, long ago. Of observation of the human condition, and, above all, social custom, ritual and a dry humour formed from the very fabric and rhythms of island life in the North. In plays, in poetry, and in prose this book affirms Life as lived in the real world; a world far away from the life of selfish ‘what can I get for me’ that we too frequently label present-day ‘civilisation.’
April 4, 2022
appreciated parts of this but other parts just draaagged
January 8, 2024
"An Orkney Tapestry" is a compelling genre-hybrid: part poem, part play, part fairy tale, part memoir, part nature writing, part myth making and myth unmaking, George Mackay Brown's piece of literature is both exciting and overwhelming. After reading you feel like you know more about Orkney but also realise how very little you know at all. The book invites you to explore yourself, to meet some of the characters in real life, to experience the weather, to read this book again somewhere on an island. I have to admit that some parts were more interesting to me than others, but I think I should like to revisit the book from time to time. I will also quote from it in my PhD about Nan Shepherd :) 4 stars
January 26, 2026
An intimate and intricate portrait of the Orkney Isles. With a mix of poetry, prose and drama Brown manages to weave a picture of a place you can see is widely important to him. It is a portrait of a place, a people and an attitude, unapologetic and certainly not objective, but all the more beautiful for it.
June 6, 2024
I read this to/from and during the Orkney Folk Festival, it is a marvelous impressionist folk history of the area. Very helpful, also beautiful. Especial shout-out to the play "The Watcher" that makes up the last chapter of the book. It has a supernatural element I really like.
August 8, 2025
I've read a lot of George Mackay Brown but this book, containing some of his earliest published writings has recently been reprinted. I picked this up in a bookshop in Orkney when I was there recently. Really enjoyed coming back home and revisiting the islands with George Mackay Brown as my guide. This book contains short stories, poems, historical pieces, and even a short, Orkney-based play derived from a Tolstoy short story. A lovely mixture of pieces, and a man trying to educate you whilst he entertains you.
May 29, 2025
20. I often think we are not really interested in the past at all. There is a new religion, Progress, in which we all devoutly believe, and it is concerned only with material things and a vague golden-handed future. It is a rootless, utilitarian faith, without beauty or mystery; a kind of blind unquestioning belief that men and their material circumstances will go on improving until some kind of nirvana is reached and everyone will be rich, free, fulfilled, well-informed, masterful.
May 3, 2021
A history of the Orkneys with poems, plays, ballads and folklore, many in Scots dialogue, woven together to create a whole. They seem mainly to lurch from battle to battle while converting to Christianity. Lovely line drawings by Sylvia Wishart.
September 4, 2022
For lovers of literature, this is an absolutely brilliant companion for a trip to Orkney. But if you don't love poetry and literature, this could be a slog. I loved it, especially the Viking section and the Watchers play.
October 8, 2022
We read this at school. I actually enjoyed the book as it gave me more information about a place I have never visited- Orkney. I would like to read this again one day and see how an older mind reacts to the information!
February 19, 2024
A collection of writing about Orkney seen through the eyes of a poet. This work examines Orkney via travel writing, nonfiction articles, myth, poetry, and drama. This work is magnificent. It makes you want to pack up and head to England. Anglophiles will love it.
June 13, 2023
Malcolm Guite recommended this. A unique work, the poesy really takes one as one leans in to the more obscure parts - the archaic language and so on - that it really takes one out of oneself and transplants one into the long gone days of the far north of Britain.
He finishes by adapting a short story of Tolstoys; a complete delight, and a gratifying introduction to the shorter works of Tolstoy. A gem.
He finishes by adapting a short story of Tolstoys; a complete delight, and a gratifying introduction to the shorter works of Tolstoy. A gem.
April 25, 2017
Rather mixed feelings on this one.
Some bits I loved, but it's very much of it's place..... & language!
Some bits I loved, but it's very much of it's place..... & language!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews