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from For the Islands I Sing, an Autobiography published 1997 John Murray (Publishers) Ltd 50 Albemarle Street London W1X 4BD |
GEORGE
MACKAY BROWN
For the Islands I Sing
| I was the last child
of a poor family. My father, John Brown, was a tailor; but
the same 'progress' that had taken the wind out of sailing ships had
hurt the tailors' trade. Suits were ready-made by machines in the
cities of the south. So my father found only part-time work as a
tailor. His main occupation was as a postman. It is in his
postman's uniform that I chiefly remember him. The Orkney mail
came across the Pentland Firth every afternoon on the mail-steamer St
Ola. After the letters had been sorted by four or five postmen
in the post office, my father set off on his round. I have one image of him, on what must have been a night of winter storm, coming into
our kitchen-living room at Clouston's pier, the rain streaming off him.
He had possibly come in to trim the lantern that every postman had,
pinned to the lapel of the overcoat, to read the names and addresses on
winter nights. Then he went once more into the tempest. The Estate of GMB © 1997 |
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from For the Islands I Sing, an Autobiography published 1997 John Murray (Publishers) Ltd 50 Albemarle Street London W1X 4BD |
Summary of For the Islands I Sing can be found at Capital Letters