George Mackay Brown: 18 books

A country boy creeps unwillingly to school on a lark-filled summer morning. Norse crusaders, preparing to sail on Earl Rognvald's crusade in 1151 break into the burial chamber at Maeshowe seeking treasure, and cut runes in its massive stones. And the famous Iceland poet Thorbjorn leaves his farm to...

Portrait of Orkney is a personal account of a people, their history and their way of life, and of a landscape that has shaped them, and been shaped by them.

An incident from the Viking period in the Northern Isles of Scotland inspired the story from which this collection takes its name. The stories range from the first century, to the 1920s - when the author was a child - to one which ends a hundred years from now.

This collection of sharply-etched fables, dealing with death, legend, love and violence create an Orcadian world that spanning myth and reality - a world set firmly between the sea and the sky - a collection of islands which are life-sustaining and soul refreshing.