George Mackay Brown was one of the 20th century’s most distinguished and original writers.

His birthplace, and lifelong inspiration, was Stromness in Orkney. In 1941 he was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis and lived an increasingly reclusive life on the island, but he produced a regular stream of publications from 1954 onwards. These included A Calendar of Love (1967), A Time to Keep (1969), Greenvoe (1972), Hawkfall (1974), and, notably, Beside the Ocean of Time (1994), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Saltire Book of the Year.

George Mackay Brown

All nominated books

Beside the Ocean of Time