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A short talk on The Life and Poetry of George Mackay Brown was given on Saturday 3rd September 2005 at the Poetry Scotland poetry weekend
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| Johnsmas
Foy St Magnus Festival 2004 The Johnsmas Foy this year celebrated the 50th anniversary of the publication of GMB's first collection of poems, The Storm. It was published in a limited edition of 300 with an introduction by Edwin Muir, GMB's mentor, and illustrated by his friend Ian MacInnes. The edition sold out in two weeks. Most of the poems in The Storm were presented by local readers and musicians, very effectively in a simple black and white setting. The programme notes made an interesting point: 'One of the revelations of this little book is the extent to which GMB has already mapped out his poetic territory. His principal subject matter is the places and people of Orkney, with their long and frequently turbulent history reaching back beyond the Viking era to the Stone Age, and their great treasure hoard of lore and legend. Here too is the celebration of farmer and fisherman, tinker and saint. The title poem of the collection is notable for its religious and autobiographical overtones.'
What blinding storm there was! How it Three poems from
The Storm can be found in Selected Poems, 1954-1992. SMT June 2004 Click Here for Foy Programme
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St Magnus Festival News 2005 Sunday 19th June 2005 The Collected Poems of George Mackay Brown Official launch of this long awaited publication, the most comprehensive collection of Mackay Brown's poetry, presented by its co-editors Archie Bevan and Brian Murray. Sunday 19th June 2005 Stromness Academy Theatre ~ 5pm Johnsmas Foy: George Mackay Brown's - Olaf Isbister, the Orkney Sailor The first Orkney performance of Mackay Brown's short play, depicting the voyage round the world and Faustian adventures of Olaf, performed by Orcadian actors and musicians, with locally created songs. Wednesday 22nd June 2005 Orkney Arts Theatre, George Mackay Brown's - Olaf Isbister, the Orkney Sailor performance as above |
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| Autumn 2004 The Poor Man in his Castle the last Christmas story written by GMB to be published by The Celtic Cross Press in their usual limited edition format with lino-cuts More details from 01751 417298 fax 01751 417739 email: info@celticcrosspress.com |
The Son of the
Fisherman George Mackay Brown from The Celtic Cross Press, a story illustrated in their usual format in a limited edition of 165. The Celtic Cross Press prints and publishes limited editions of fine books, based in England, in the Yorkshire village of Lastingham. More details from 01751 417298 fax 01751 417739 email: info@celticcrosspress.com |
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Synopsis This volume assesses the literary stature of George Mackay Brown by contextualising his prose and his poetry within twentieth-century British and European literary practices and traditions of thought. Challenging the typecasting of Brown as 'Orkney writer', the book links him with Euroepan Modernism and reveals the complex web of experiences, influences and relationships that shaped Brown's poetic development. This comparative study argues that Edwin Muir, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Thomas Mann analysed remarkably similar cultural and spiritual phenomena, inspiring Brown's own work. Muir travelled back into what he called the racial memory of the tribe. Hopkins aimed for a revival of religious values and the recovery of the sacramental power of the word. Thomas Mann felt that man must discover and put into practice a 'new humanism' which would embrace the mythic-archetypal structure of the unconscious and man's individual consciousness. All four writers attempted to 'get back to the roots and sources' by probing the ways in which individuals and society as a whole gain a better understanding of and a more meaningful relationship with their pasts. This book chronicles George Mackay Brown's personal and artistic journey, from his early reporting days on an Orkney newspaper, through spells in hospital recovering from tuberculosis, to his friendship with Edwin Muir and growing confidence in his own vision.
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