The Collected Poems of George Mackay Brown

George Mackay Brown is recognised as one of Scotland's greatest twentieth-century lyric poets. His work is integral to the flowering of Scottish literature over the last fifty years. Admired by many fellow poets, including Seamus Heaney and Douglas Dunn, his poems are deeply individual and unmistakable in their setting: 'the small green world' of the Orkney Islands where he lived for most of his life, with its elemental forces of sea and sky and Norse and Icelandic ancestry, is brought vividly and memorably to life.

Here, his rich resonant poetry is collected in one volume, making available again many poems that are otherwise out of print.

“Extraordinarily effective - Robert McCrum, The Observer A brilliant writer - Spectator George Mackay Brown really does possess the magician's touch - Observer A dazzling writer - The Guardian Undoubtedly the most important document of his work to be produced so far. - Shetland Times, Malachy Tallack. George Mackay Brown has added uniquely and steadfastly to the riches of poetry in English: his sense of the world and his way with words are powerfully at one with each other - Seamus Heaney The Collected Poems show the range and depth of his work, the beauty of it, "the undersong of terrible holy joy" - Scotsman The reader embarks on a voyage - which is how Mackay Brown himself saw his work - through the elemental world of his cliff-girt, craggy isles. - The Times, Rachel Campbell-Johnston”

Extraordinarily effective - Robert McCrum, The Observer

A brilliant writer - Spectator

George Mackay Brown really does possess the magician's touch - Observer

A dazzling writer - The Guardian

Undoubtedly the most important document of his work to be produced so far. - Shetland Times, Malachy Tallack.

George Mackay Brown has added uniquely and steadfastly to the riches of poetry in English: his sense of the world and his way with words are powerfully at one with each other - Seamus Heaney

The Collected Poems show the range and depth of his work, the beauty of it, "the undersong of terrible holy joy" - Scotsman

The reader embarks on a voyage - which is how Mackay Brown himself saw his work - through the elemental world of his cliff-girt, craggy isles. - The Times, Rachel Campbell-Johnston

Brian Murray read English at Glasgow University and was a teacher in the West of Scotland. With Archie Bevan he has been editing the unpublished and uncollected work of George Mackay Brown - seven volumes to date, with an eighth just completed. Like his daughter Rowena, he was a long-term friend of the writer.

George Mackay Brown is recognised as one of Scotland's greatest twentieth-century lyric poets. His work is integral to the flowering of Scottish literature over the last fifty years. Admired by many fellow poets, including Seamus Heaney and Douglas Dunn, his poems are deeply individual and unmistakable in their setting: 'the small green world' of the Orkney Islands where he lived for most of his life, with its elemental forces of sea and sky and Norse and Icelandic ancestry, is brought vividly and memorably to life. Here, his rich resonant poetry is collected in one volume, making available again many poems that are otherwise out of print.

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