George Mackay Brown
George Mackay Brown was born in October 1921 in Stromness in the Orkney Islands. From his youth he was affected by tuberculosis. Apart from a spell as a mature student at the University of Edinburgh and Newbattle Abbey College, he spent most of his life in his native islands. They provided him with inspiration for his poems, short stories and novels. He was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994 for Beside the Ocean of Time. His autobiography, For the Islands I sing, was published shortly after his death. George Mackay Brown died in 1996.
