Editorial Review:
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George Mackay Brown was one of Scotland’s most prolific and acclaimed writers, but he was also a handful of paradoxes. He holds a wide international reputation despite rarely leaving his native Orkney. He never married, but some of his most poignant letters and poems were written to Stella Cartwright, “the Muse of Rose Street.” Maggie Fergusson is the only biographer to whom the reluctant Brown gave his blessing, and her brilliant account reveals that this artist’s life was not only fascinating but vivid, courageous, and surprising.
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Reader Reviews for George Mackay Brown: The Life:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Many accolades well deserved
Comment:
Part of Mackay Brown's prose is centered around Orkney's Norse
roots. Early on, he was affected profoundly by the Orkneyinga
Saga. So many of his books contain a true redition of an exciting
history.
Maggie Fergusson has in this biography helped us appreciate the life
of an author extraordinaire!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Orkney's Finest Weaver of Tales and Poetry
Comment: This is a highly readable biography of the extraordinary writer that was George Mackay Brown. He lived most of his life in Orkney, but his novels, short stories and poetry have the complexity, language, imagination and spirituality of a much-travelled man. GMB did not have an easy life and remained puzzled by (and uncomfortable with) his celebrity. He did not enjoy good health for much of his life; he lived simply and was a modest man but not one of those tortured souls grinding out poetry in guilt-ridden angst. He was more complex than he appeared, with a spiritual, almost holy, feel for the past that he was able to share through the prism of Orkney. I learned much from this biography, which dips into a range of sources, both personal and published. It is wonderful to see where some of GMB's inspiration came from. He was certainly one of Britain's greatest poets (and that's saying something). His writings are well worth exploring - they really are a joy. This well-written biography is a good introduction to the man, but you are likely only to find the real GMB through his writing, and that is a journey well worth making. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Orkney's Finest Weaver of Tales and Poetry
Comment: This is a highly readable biography of the extraordinary writer that was George Mackay Brown. He lived most of his life in Orkney, but his novels, short stories and poetry have the complexity, language, imagination and spirituality of a much-travelled man. GMB did not have an easy life and remained puzzled by (and uncomfortable with) his celebrity. He did not enjoy good health for much of his life; he lived simply and was a modest man but not one of those tortured souls grinding out poetry in guilt-ridden angst. He was more complex than he appeared, with a spiritual, almost holy, feel for the past that he was able to share through the prism of Orkney. I learned much from this biography, which dips into a range of sources, both personal and published. It is wonderful to see where some of GMB's inspiration came from. He was certainly one of Britain's greatest poets (and that's saying something). His writings are well worth exploring - they really are a joy. This well-written biography is a good introduction to the man, but you are likely only to find the real GMB through his writing, and that is a journey well worth making. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: George Mackay Brown: The Life by Maggie Fergusson
Comment: `George Mackay Brown: The Life' is compelling from the first word. It is a vivid, intelligent account of a complex man, beautifully written with a kind of passionate restraint and breathtaking honesty. The research is meticulous and the result full of integrity and insight - a remarkable achievement. Rooted in his island home, George Mackay Brown is often simplified, or pigeon-holed as some kind of backwater bard, or mystic sage. This book reveals the man's complexities: his self-critical toughness, his difficulties with relationships, his place both inside and outside the community in the islands he loved, his gifts as a sharp observer with a poetic intellect that shaped and honed his material into poetry and prose of a rare, distilled beauty.
Writing as someone who knew the writer in his later years, I heartily recommend the book to anyone who has any interest in the man or his work at any level. It is a work of art in itself and biography at its best: accessible, multi-layered and perceptive; in turn both searing and uplifting.
Pam Beasant, Stromness
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