Beyond the Swelkie – Celebrating George MacKay Brown

Taking its title from a new collection of poetry and prose, published to mark the centenary of Orcadian poet and author George Mackay Brown, Beyond the Swelkie combines words, music and imagery to explore and celebrate the shared inspirations of landscape, heritage and tradition. With contributors including James Robertson, Andrew Greig, Gerda Stevenson, Christine de Luca and George Gunn, the book – variously written in English, Scots and Gaelic - pays tribute to Mackay’s local and international legacy, aiming to attract new audiences to his work. Building on lockdown collaborations between the featured performers, co-editor and fellow poet Jim Mackintosh reads extracts from the collection, alongside samples of Mackay’s own writings, interwoven with musical responses from the great Highland fiddler Duncan Chisholm and acclaimed flautist/pianist Hamish Napier, against a complementary backdrop of evocative visual projections.