AFTER reading Maggie Fergusson’s superb biography of George Mackay Brown I couldn’t wait to reread the writer and poet’s own autobiography. I bought the book as soon as it was published, twelve years ago and although I set about reading it immediately I did so during a job which I hated. The book became a kind of diversion technique and I remembered less about its contents than about the tedious work I was doing. In the intervening years I have seen reviews which described it variously as 'disingenuous', ‘disappointing’, ‘selective’, ‘slight’. Hence, I thought, it was high time to revisit it, paying it the attention it deserved. And what a joy it was too. I certainly felt those negative comments of reviewers misplaced, or maybe, they had simply taken the term 'autobiography' too literally. The book is not so much a chronicle of the poet's life as a series of stream-of-consciousness musings about significant episodes in his life and the people within it who played an important role . His style is endearing, intimate almost, as though, during a cosy winter evening by the fire he is alone with the reader sharing with him his reminiscences. His humour makes the work sparkle.
Around the time I was establishing myself as a freelance writer I penned my own review of the autobiography for my portfolio. I wondered if my initial impressions would be different after reading it again, but I am pleased to say I still believe that it is an acurate portrayal.
George Mackay Brown, the Orcadian poet and story writer, wrote his autobiography 'For the Islands I Sing' in the years before his death in April 1996, but he did not want it to be published during his lifetime. It is a beautifully touching and honest account of a life that began rather insignificantly, but ended with him having become one of the most acclaimed writers of the second half of the twentieth Century.
Anyone looking here for self analysis of his work will be disappointed. Instead, GBM, as he was known to most, chooses to reminisce about his life, his family and friends, occasionally giving the reader a bird's eye view of other aspects of Orkney life also.
Brown was born in Stromness, Orkney's second town, and after illustrating what life there was like during his early years, he provides a brilliant insight into his background, making his phenomenal worldwide success perhaps all the more surprising. He was the last of seven children, born into a 'poor family'.
Brown's early life was dogged by recurring bouts of tuberculosis, but things eventually took an upward turn when he met the Orkney-born poet Edwin Muir who invited him to study at Newbattle Abbey in Dalkeith where Muir was warden. Later GMB was to admit that it was this time at Newbattle that gave him the inspiration and direction he so badly sought.
Most of his work is mentioned merely in passing, perhaps reflecting the quiet, self effacing man he was. Rather George Mackay Brown prefers to tell about the people who made an impression on his life. Apart from an appendix which he added in 1993 he wrote the main part of his autobiography in 1985, eleven years before his death.
© Carola Huttmann, February 2003
REF. For the Islands I Sing, by George Mackay Brown
Publisher: John Murray (24 April 1997), 192 pages, hb
01/07/09
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