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A Time to Keep and Other Stories
The second collection of stories published by George Mackay Brown, this volume includes 12 stories arising from both ancient and modern life on the island of Orkney.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
192 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2000
About the author
George Mackay Brown
184 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 24, 2021
Quite a gritty, at times almost gothic, collection of tales. Contains the recurring themes of the author’s: a love of Orkney but a yearning for adventure, a love of words but a belief that working the land or sea is more worthwhile, the plight of women, alcoholism, catholicism, & harking back to the viking roots & connections of the islands. They all remain pertinent to this age, The Wireless Set in particular could have been written yesterday.
February 7, 2018
George Mackay Brown's second collection of Orcadian stories, written in the 1960s, now seem to come from another more simpler, uncomplicated age. Yet the themes of community, religion, temptation/drink and the struggle to survive in a sometimes harsh environment still resonate. My favourites were 'The Whaler's Return', 'The Eye of the Hurricane' and 'The Storyteller'.
September 22, 2025
2020 Review of Brown's 1969 short story collection A Time to Keep
:
I happen to hold George Mackay Brown in high esteem, and throughout this collection you do get a sense of the cold, salty spindrift against your face, the wind blowing waves in the oats and barley, and the sparse and stoic world of Orkney that one expects from Brown. The stories are not on the same level as his novels, however, which he would start to produce a few years later and continue for over two decades. He is clearly still exploring here, honing in on some of the themes and styles which would be the touchstone of his major works. In fact, this collection seems at times too focused on scenes and tragedies of strong drink which are not as successful, to my eye. Nor is Brown's Catholicism, which is sometimes too forwardly explored at times, very engaging. Most of those stories don't seem to go anywhere, merely being an exercise in observation.
But when he lays bare before you the glacial, grinding of time, the sea and earth, the seasons, and the repetitive simple needs and struggles of the people of Orkney, these stories have the depth and embrace of his strongest works. The title story, "A Time to Keep", is probably the best thing here, but "The Story Teller" and "Tartan" also stand out, and clearly indicate where Brown will eventually head. It always amazes me that such cold, wind-blown, unfriendly climes as described in these works yet manages to raise in me an extreme wanderlust, a longing to buy a stone croft amid fields, facing the sea.
2025 Review of the 1987 Vanguard Press edition of this title:
First and foremost, this is NOT the same book, and should not be linked under GoodReads to the 1969 collection. It is, instead, a selection of stories from each of his then-previous five short story collections: A Calendar of Love (1967), A Time to Keep (1969), Hawkfall (1974), The Sun's Net (1976), and Andrina and Other Stories (1983), as well as one additional story that had not been published outside of magazines. As I mentioned above, I still feel Brown makes more of an impact with his novels, even though some are closer to interconnected episodes similar to a short-story cycle, than he does in his clearly separated short stories, and sometimes his religious thoughts intrude too heavily. But he still manages throughout to always capture the spirit of the island life, and all its burdens and joys. The story "A Time to Keep" naturally remains one of the highlights here, along with "A Calendar of Love" and "Hawkfall" - all of which are lengthier, and more fully-developed. "Sealskin", his retelling of the selkie legend, is also very good, as is "The Feast at Paplay", which brings the legendary story of Earl Hakon's murder of Earl Magnus into a very personal, tangible, human setting.
I happen to hold George Mackay Brown in high esteem, and throughout this collection you do get a sense of the cold, salty spindrift against your face, the wind blowing waves in the oats and barley, and the sparse and stoic world of Orkney that one expects from Brown. The stories are not on the same level as his novels, however, which he would start to produce a few years later and continue for over two decades. He is clearly still exploring here, honing in on some of the themes and styles which would be the touchstone of his major works. In fact, this collection seems at times too focused on scenes and tragedies of strong drink which are not as successful, to my eye. Nor is Brown's Catholicism, which is sometimes too forwardly explored at times, very engaging. Most of those stories don't seem to go anywhere, merely being an exercise in observation.
But when he lays bare before you the glacial, grinding of time, the sea and earth, the seasons, and the repetitive simple needs and struggles of the people of Orkney, these stories have the depth and embrace of his strongest works. The title story, "A Time to Keep", is probably the best thing here, but "The Story Teller" and "Tartan" also stand out, and clearly indicate where Brown will eventually head. It always amazes me that such cold, wind-blown, unfriendly climes as described in these works yet manages to raise in me an extreme wanderlust, a longing to buy a stone croft amid fields, facing the sea.
2025 Review of the 1987 Vanguard Press edition of this title:
First and foremost, this is NOT the same book, and should not be linked under GoodReads to the 1969 collection. It is, instead, a selection of stories from each of his then-previous five short story collections: A Calendar of Love (1967), A Time to Keep (1969), Hawkfall (1974), The Sun's Net (1976), and Andrina and Other Stories (1983), as well as one additional story that had not been published outside of magazines. As I mentioned above, I still feel Brown makes more of an impact with his novels, even though some are closer to interconnected episodes similar to a short-story cycle, than he does in his clearly separated short stories, and sometimes his religious thoughts intrude too heavily. But he still manages throughout to always capture the spirit of the island life, and all its burdens and joys. The story "A Time to Keep" naturally remains one of the highlights here, along with "A Calendar of Love" and "Hawkfall" - all of which are lengthier, and more fully-developed. "Sealskin", his retelling of the selkie legend, is also very good, as is "The Feast at Paplay", which brings the legendary story of Earl Hakon's murder of Earl Magnus into a very personal, tangible, human setting.
Want to Read
April 8, 2025Read so far:
A calendar of love --
Celia --
A time to keep --3
A treading of grapes --
Icarus --
*The story teller --
*The wireless set --
The five of spades --
*The whaler's return --
*The bright spade --
Tartan --
A carrier of stones --
*The eye of the hurricane --
***
Andrina --3
Brig-o-dread --
The last island boy --
The pirate's ghost --
Sam and the sea --
Three old men --
A calendar of love --
Celia --
A time to keep --3
A treading of grapes --
Icarus --
*The story teller --
*The wireless set --
The five of spades --
*The whaler's return --
*The bright spade --
Tartan --
A carrier of stones --
*The eye of the hurricane --
***
Andrina --3
Brig-o-dread --
The last island boy --
The pirate's ghost --
Sam and the sea --
Three old men --
January 14, 2015
I didn't love these stories but I enjoyed them and they gave me something to think about. They were assigned reading for school so I didn't read all of he stories in the collection but I did most of them. I especially liked "The Wireless Set" and the "Eye of the Hurricane"!
Read
December 17, 2007A wonderful man and writer.
October 7, 2012
GMB is the master of the short story; his writing is haunting and beautiful. I especially enjoyed 'The Story Teller' in this collection.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews