In February 1971 George Mackay Brown began to write a weekly column for The Orcadian newspaper – a letter from his home town for Stromness exiles everywhere. It became a weekly task that would continue for the next 25 years.

Some four years years after The First Letter was written – ironically during a postal strike – 148 were selected and published in 1975 as Letters from Hamnavoe, ‘light reading,’ he said, for quiet townsfolk on a Thursday afternoon.’ One imagined the origins of Stromness in the first house – a hostelry – built at Hamnavoe at the end of the bay; others pondered the origins of place-names and street-names; various festivals and pieces of folklore; well known writers and local personalities; change and childhood memories; Stromness Shopping Week; and tourists.

Seven Books 3 in the Centenary Book Group series, hosted by the GMB Fellowship and Orkney Library & Archive, was introduced by writer Pam Beasant.

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Pamela Beasant

Pamela Beasant is a widely published poet and non-fiction writer. Seven plays have been commissioned and performed in Orkney including A Hamnavoe Man (2006) about George Mackay Brown. 

Poetry titles include Running with a Snow Leopard (Two Ravens Press); Orkney: a celebration of light and landscape, with photographer Iain Sarjeant, and A Crow in the Rear-View Mirror (Hansel Cooperative Press). Other poetry commissions include work in Archipelagos, published by the University of Edinburgh as part of the Writing the North project. Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and literary magazines including New Writing Scotland, Slightly Foxed, These Islands We Sing (Polygon), Chapman, 100 Favourite Scottish Love Poems and Scotia Nova (both Luath). 

Non-fiction includes Stanley Cursiter; a life of the artist (Orkney Museum), and St Magnus Festival; a celebration (The Orcadian), and many information books for children.