George Mackay Brown: The Life [Paperback]

Maggie Fergusson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2007

George Mackay Brown was one of Scotland’s most prolific and acclaimed writers, but he was also a handful of paradoxes. He holds a wide international reputation despite rarely leaving his native Orkney. He never married, but some of his most poignant letters and poems were written to Stella Cartwright, “the Muse of Rose Street.” Maggie Fergusson is the only biographer to whom the reluctant Brown gave his blessing, and her brilliant account reveals that this artist’s life was not only fascinating but vivid, courageous, and surprising.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Vociferously admired by British poet laureate Ted Hughes and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney and an honored novelist, Brown (1921-96) is one of the great writers of the twentieth century least well known outside his homeland. His books appear in America not in domestic editions but as imported British products, as does this rainwater-fresh biography, a first book that has already garnered high praise from master literary biographer Claire Tomalin. Fergusson tells a quietly fascinating and moving story. The youngest of six children of a part-time postman and pieceworker, Brown was reserved from childhood. The adolescent onset of severe depression and, later, tuberculosis exacerbated his shyness and delayed the higher education he wanted until his 30s. He had begun writing, however, as a columnist in Orkney's newspapers, and even that early work, quoted liberally here, displays the clarity, precise imagery, and intimate and sympathetic perspective characteristic of the poetry and prose fiction that followed. If not for his strong sense of vocation, TB or the alcoholism triggered by his depression might have killed him. He triumphed over both, and his final decade was his most productive. Perhaps the best thing about the biography is that Fergusson's prose seems inspired by Brown's. It's simply beautiful. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A deeply enjoyable reading experience."  —Choice

"Outstanding . . . This is an extraordinarily good book."  —New Statesman

"Maggie Fergusson has captured the essence of the man with insight and elegance."  —Sunday Daily Express 

"A significant monument to an elegiac writer of genuine literary muscle."  —The Times

"Maggie Fergusson's biography is a deftly written and convincingly craggy portrait of this Orcadian genius."  —William Dalrymple, author, The Age of Kali and City of Djinns

"Clear, detailed, vigilant, droll and beautifully written. . . . Maggie Fergusson conveys with the grace of the born writer."  —Candia McWilliam, author, A Case of Knives and Debatable Land

"An outstanding biography: deeply researched, sympathetic and full of insight. . . . It brings this extraordinary man to life on every page."  —Claire Tomalin, former literary editor, New Statesman and the Sunday Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: John Murray (September 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0719566053
• ISBN-13: 978-0719566059
• Product Dimensions: 1.2 x 5 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,889,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars George Mackay Brown: The Life by Maggie Fergusson, May 15, 2006

By 

Pam Beasant "Pam Beasant" (Stromness, Orkney) - See all my reviews

This review is from: George Mackay Brown: The Life (Hardcover)

`George Mackay Brown: The Life' is compelling from the first word. It is a vivid, intelligent account of a complex man, beautifully written with a kind of passionate restraint and breathtaking honesty. The research is meticulous and the result full of integrity and insight - a remarkable achievement. Rooted in his island home, George Mackay Brown is often simplified, or pigeon-holed as some kind of backwater bard, or mystic sage. This book reveals the man's complexities: his self-critical toughness, his difficulties with relationships, his place both inside and outside the community in the islands he loved, his gifts as a sharp observer with a poetic intellect that shaped and honed his material into poetry and prose of a rare, distilled beauty.

Writing as someone who knew the writer in his later years, I heartily recommend the book to anyone who has any interest in the man or his work at any level. It is a work of art in itself and biography at its best: accessible, multi-layered and perceptive; in turn both searing and uplifting.

Pam Beasant, Stromness

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Orkney's Finest Weaver of Tales and Poetry, September 10, 2007

By 

David Lusher (London England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: George Mackay Brown: The Life (Paperback)

This is a highly readable biography of the extraordinary writer that was George Mackay Brown. He lived most of his life in Orkney, but his novels, short stories and poetry have the complexity, language, imagination and spirituality of a much-travelled man. GMB did not have an easy life and remained puzzled by (and uncomfortable with) his celebrity. He did not enjoy good health for much of his life; he lived simply and was a modest man but not one of those tortured souls grinding out poetry in guilt-ridden angst. He was more complex than he appeared, with a spiritual, almost holy, feel for the past that he was able to share through the prism of Orkney. I learned much from this biography, which dips into a range of sources, both personal and published. It is wonderful to see where some of GMB's inspiration came from. He was certainly one of Britain's greatest poets (and that's saying something). His writings are well worth exploring - they really are a joy. This well-written biography is a good introduction to the man, but you are likely only to find the real GMB through his writing, and that is a journey well worth making. Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Many accolades well deserved, June 14, 2009

By 

Dag Stomberg (St. Andrews, Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: George Mackay Brown: The Life (Paperback)

Part of Mackay Brown's prose is centered around Orkney's Norse

roots. Early on, he was affected profoundly by the Orkneyinga

Saga. So many of his books contain a true redition of an exciting

history.

Maggie Fergusson has in this biography helped us appreciate the life

of an author extraordinaire!