In the centenary of the birth of George Mackay Brown in 1921, the GMB Fellowship and BBC Radio Orkney launched a joint project to trace as many copies as possible of the writer’s first collection, The Storm and other poems published in 1954. The radio station broadcast a special programme on Monday 15 November 2021 to mark the centenary of GMB’s birth on 17 October 2021.
As well as learning where copies have found homes – in Orkney, Scotland, the UK, the world! – we were pleased so many owners were willing to share stories they have of the books. How they came to own them, what they know of their history, what they mean to them now.
The stories form part of the BBC Radio Orkney programme, Tullimentan, presented by Huw Williams, and you can hear Elizabeth Copp, Maggie Fergusson, Kim Foden, Graham Garson, Susan Leonard, Pat Long and Alison Miller tell the stories of how they came to own a copy of The Storm and Other Poems by George Mackay Brown, and listen to wonderful readings of the poems by Elizabeth Bevan, and of GMB’s letters and reviews of his poems by Helen Foulis and Cameron Stout.
Listen to the programme here by clicking this link:
We would love to hear from more owners of The Storm and Other Poems and continue to build up a list of places the book has reached, and stories of how they came to their owners, and what they mean to them! If you have a copy of The Storm and have not already been in touch but would be willing to tell us about it, please email us at: gmbfellows@gmail.com
Where now?
The Storm and Other Poems
Click the title above to read about George Mackay Brown’s first collection of poems published in 1954.
Stories of The Storm
Click the title above to read the accounts of the 1954 copies of The Storm and Other Poems.
The Storm: the Making of a Print
Copies of the print, made in limited edition of 100, are now on sale and details of how to purchase one are available here.
We still have more to add to this page. Here you will shortly be able to read more about how artist Erlend Brown created a print of the cover image of The Storm using, as the starting point of the process, the printer’s block made from the original drawing by artist Ian MacInnes, a friend of George Mackay Brown from his schooldays.
GMB Centenary 2021
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Use the links in the navigation bar at the top of the page if you would like to read more about the work of the George Mackay Brown Fellowship.
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