What do you think?
Rate this book
A Calendar of Love and Other Stories
Set against the harsh background of Orkney, this collection of stories tells of fishermen, crofters, farmers and tinkers and how they live out their lives. The author succeeds in writing in a style that takes the reader into the realm of the mystical.
159 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
1 person is currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
George Mackay Brown
183 books101 followersGeorge Mackay Brown, the poet, novelist and dramatist, spent his life living in and documenting the Orkney Isles.
A bout of severe measles at the age of 12 became the basis for recurring health problems throughout his life. Uncertain as to his future, he remained in education until 1940, a year which brought with it a growing reality of the war, and the unexpected death of his father. The following year he was diagnosed with (then incurable) Pulmonary Tuberculosis and spent six months in hospital in Kirkwall, Orkney's main town.
Around this time, he began writing poetry, and also prose for the Orkney Herald for which he became Stromness Correspondent, reporting events such as the switching on of the electricity grid in 1947. In 1950 he met the poet Edwin Muir, a fellow Orcadian, who recognised Mackay Brown's talent for writing, and would become his literary tutor and mentor at Newbattle Abbey College, in Midlothian, which he attended in 1951-2. Recurring TB forced Mackay Brown to spend the following year in hospital, but his experience at Newbattle spurred him to apply to Edinburgh University, to read English Literature, returning to do post-graduate work on Gerard Manley Hopkins.
In later life Mackay Brown rarely left Orkney. He turned to writing full-time, publishing his first collection of poetry, The Storm, in 1954. His writing explored life on Orkney, and the history and traditions which make up Orkney's distinct cultural identity. Many of his works are concerned with protecting Orkney's cultural heritage from the relentless march of progress and the loss of myth and archaic ritual in the modern world. Reflecting this, his best known work is Greenvoe (1972), in which the permanence of island life is threatened by 'Black Star', a mysterious nuclear development.
Mackay Brown's literary reputation grew steadily. He received an OBE in 1974 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1977, in addition to gaining several honorary degrees. His final novel, Beside the Ocean of Time (1994) was Booker Prize shortlisted and judged Scottish Book of the Year by the Saltire Society. Mackay Brown died in his home town of Stromness on 13th April 1996.
He produced several poetry collections, five novels, eight collections of short stories and two poem-plays, as well as non-fiction portraits of Orkney, an autobiography, For the Islands I Sing (1997), and published journalism.
Read more at:
http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org....
A bout of severe measles at the age of 12 became the basis for recurring health problems throughout his life. Uncertain as to his future, he remained in education until 1940, a year which brought with it a growing reality of the war, and the unexpected death of his father. The following year he was diagnosed with (then incurable) Pulmonary Tuberculosis and spent six months in hospital in Kirkwall, Orkney's main town.
Around this time, he began writing poetry, and also prose for the Orkney Herald for which he became Stromness Correspondent, reporting events such as the switching on of the electricity grid in 1947. In 1950 he met the poet Edwin Muir, a fellow Orcadian, who recognised Mackay Brown's talent for writing, and would become his literary tutor and mentor at Newbattle Abbey College, in Midlothian, which he attended in 1951-2. Recurring TB forced Mackay Brown to spend the following year in hospital, but his experience at Newbattle spurred him to apply to Edinburgh University, to read English Literature, returning to do post-graduate work on Gerard Manley Hopkins.
In later life Mackay Brown rarely left Orkney. He turned to writing full-time, publishing his first collection of poetry, The Storm, in 1954. His writing explored life on Orkney, and the history and traditions which make up Orkney's distinct cultural identity. Many of his works are concerned with protecting Orkney's cultural heritage from the relentless march of progress and the loss of myth and archaic ritual in the modern world. Reflecting this, his best known work is Greenvoe (1972), in which the permanence of island life is threatened by 'Black Star', a mysterious nuclear development.
Mackay Brown's literary reputation grew steadily. He received an OBE in 1974 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1977, in addition to gaining several honorary degrees. His final novel, Beside the Ocean of Time (1994) was Booker Prize shortlisted and judged Scottish Book of the Year by the Saltire Society. Mackay Brown died in his home town of Stromness on 13th April 1996.
He produced several poetry collections, five novels, eight collections of short stories and two poem-plays, as well as non-fiction portraits of Orkney, an autobiography, For the Islands I Sing (1997), and published journalism.
Read more at:
http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org....
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 5, 2019
A book of short stories about the Orkneys, northern Scottish islands still marked by their Viking heritage.
These tales are as spare, strange and elegant as anything by Raymond Carver, and yet broader and richer in their appreciation of our common humanity.
May 5, 2022
Brown’s Orcadian stories are plain alluring. He can work all kinds of magic with history, Viking through modern. This book was published in 1967. With his many talents, Brown illuminates landscape, tough weather, marginal fishing and farming lives, drink, tales and close community.
I love the stories of the Norsemen doing what they were famed for such as Rollo speaking in “The Three Islands”. He has approached a fortified house to break down the door and had more than a little ale. Unfortunately for him he meets an arrow. His dry comment is, “I don’t need to worry about that headache in the morning.” “Witch” is an awesomely told story of an innocent girl tortured and cruelly killed in the time of witch hunts. “Stone Poems” is another favorite of mine, telling how runes came to be at Maeshowe, in the voices of the 7 Vikings who sheltered there in a storm.
History come alive in beautiful writing.
I love the stories of the Norsemen doing what they were famed for such as Rollo speaking in “The Three Islands”. He has approached a fortified house to break down the door and had more than a little ale. Unfortunately for him he meets an arrow. His dry comment is, “I don’t need to worry about that headache in the morning.” “Witch” is an awesomely told story of an innocent girl tortured and cruelly killed in the time of witch hunts. “Stone Poems” is another favorite of mine, telling how runes came to be at Maeshowe, in the voices of the 7 Vikings who sheltered there in a storm.
History come alive in beautiful writing.
August 20, 2018
A collection of stories--or maybe vignettes--all set in the Orkney Islands, where the author lived his entire life. They range from near fairy-tales, to folktales, to scenes from sagas, to straightforward short stories, from the 10th century to today. The style is spare and evocative, capturing the the land, the weather, and the people in the fewest possible words, describing love obliquely and hard life with perfect detail. Since my favorite whisky comes from Orkney, I especially enjoyed "The Troubling of the Waters," a series of small pictures about various local moonshiners. "Noah Folster made a whisky that was appreciated in cultured quarters. The laird said he could taste the peat of Keelylang in it. Mr. Seward the teacher detected the unique loamy flavour of Quoylay grain, every sip (he said) lapped his tongue like a yellow wave of harvest. Mr. McVey the minister said an empty jar of Noah Folster was like the death of a brilliant young poet...With all that fulsome talk in high circles Noah was quickly in trouble with the exciseman. The laird paid his fine, and so he should have--all that palaver about the fragrance of buried forests! Noah's whisky was the colour of dirty daylight, and its taste on my palate was bogwater with an evil essence to it."
September 28, 2014
Very impressed. The style is between minimal and sparse and it's just right for the settings. I bought it in Stromness on a 5-day holiday and revelled in knowing I'd visited many of the locations he wrote about in this book.
July 24, 2009
How I love this collection of short stories. Spare, simple, beautiful.
August 25, 2013
I love his poetry. I didn't know how good the stories would be. Magical, intoxicating.
March 23, 2014
Beautiful and simple stories revolving around the islands of Orkney, crossing time and space. Haunting. Stayed with me for a long time.
December 19, 2021
These stories are clearly of the Orkneys, with a clear sense of the islands, the Atlantic winds, the rough seas, the cliff sides, the farms, and the pastures. Yet these stories also transcend place (and time), giving us depictions of human nature, and sometimes of people who transcend that limitation. Most notably, in "Witch", the character Marian Isbister is uncompromisingly steadfast in her own dignity despite the many physical and spiritual insults that she is forced to suffer at the hands of the eminent men of the county (and the rabble who went along with them).
The similes and metaphors are stunningly original (e.g., in the story "Stone Poems").
"The Three Islands" is a 20th Century story about collecting lobsters from, and resetting creels. In the middle of the story is an interlude ostensibly written by a medieval monk, showing a connection between the lives of the long ago inhabitants, and those of the present. These stories seem like letters from the present to the future.
The similes and metaphors are stunningly original (e.g., in the story "Stone Poems").
"The Three Islands" is a 20th Century story about collecting lobsters from, and resetting creels. In the middle of the story is an interlude ostensibly written by a medieval monk, showing a connection between the lives of the long ago inhabitants, and those of the present. These stories seem like letters from the present to the future.
February 4, 2019
Sometimes a few words can say a lot. But not a lot can always be said about a few words.
At first I was very much against the "the black cat sat on the mat" level of simplicity present here, and I nearly gave up after the first story. Persevered however, and the basic nature does manage to get across the bleakness and honesty of what i can only assume is "the good old days".
I just dont think there's that much here, sorry.
At first I was very much against the "the black cat sat on the mat" level of simplicity present here, and I nearly gave up after the first story. Persevered however, and the basic nature does manage to get across the bleakness and honesty of what i can only assume is "the good old days".
I just dont think there's that much here, sorry.
November 5, 2017
Combining both modern day and historical tales, George Mackay Brown's first collection of Orcadian short stories is beautifully sparse and economical. His strong sense of place, precise use of language and oral storytelling sensibility really resonated with me, making me want to revisit them again and again.
May 4, 2017
Fantastic! These tales are a joy to read. Looking forward to reading the rest of his work.
July 13, 2019
Wonderful collection. Precision in language, direct, immediate and often packing a real emotional heft.
September 4, 2020
All set in Orkney these grim, eloquently told stories are strongly evocative of the harsh lives of the ordinary people who live, and have always lived, there.
November 27, 2016
George Mackay Brown's voice is the lyrical lilting voice of the Orkney islands. Some of his stories are poetic melodies soaring and swirling with the birds of the landscape. Others are dark reminders of violence and injustice in the island's turbulent past. They speak to me of the places I know here, and make me eager to discover others.
I found the story of Marion Isbister, the convicted 'witch' who had been a servant at Howe Farm, particularly difficult to read. We live opposite the turning to the Howe Farms, although it is not an unusual farm name here in Mainland Orkney, and walk through the farmyard of one on our way to the fishermen's huts and the geos lined with nesting seabirds, or the wide bay with its choin on the shore we see from our window. The village shop is Isbister brothers, and the name is one one hears frequently here. Her silence condemns her, but what is the point of protesting one's innocence when one knows that the verdict has preceded the trial? A chilling reminder of a not too distant past.
This grim tale is balanced by the light and poetry of many others in the collection. His use of language is well worth the effort of reading, and it is a book difficult to put down.
I found the story of Marion Isbister, the convicted 'witch' who had been a servant at Howe Farm, particularly difficult to read. We live opposite the turning to the Howe Farms, although it is not an unusual farm name here in Mainland Orkney, and walk through the farmyard of one on our way to the fishermen's huts and the geos lined with nesting seabirds, or the wide bay with its choin on the shore we see from our window. The village shop is Isbister brothers, and the name is one one hears frequently here. Her silence condemns her, but what is the point of protesting one's innocence when one knows that the verdict has preceded the trial? A chilling reminder of a not too distant past.
This grim tale is balanced by the light and poetry of many others in the collection. His use of language is well worth the effort of reading, and it is a book difficult to put down.
Read
February 24, 2013Wonderful Stories. I have 2 more Books of Stories to read by George Mackay Brown and I am really looking forward to it. M
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews