Now past seventy, George Mackay Brown is unique among modern British writers in the scope, nature, and integrity of his achievements. A major part of his distinctiveness lies in the way he has created an entire oeuvre centered on a sparsely populated region, the Orkney Islands, which are far on the periphery of national life. Another dimension that sets him apart from all other current British writers is the vision that informs his work, a vision made up of values drawn from his religion, his sense of history, his literary allegiances, and his devotion to Orkney. Furthermore, he is one of those rare writers who combines wide accessibility and popularity with a totally uncompromised reputation as an artist of the utmost seriousness and integrity.

He has attained distinction in three literary modes: verse, the short story, and the novel. An aspect of this versatility is the tight interrelatedness...