GMB - Bard of Orkney

I'm a collector of George Mackay Brown memorabilia. I have this poster from a kindly librarian, from a National Libraries of Scotland touring exhibition of his work. I believe the poster shows the sea cliffs of Hoy. I should know where the extract comes from, but I forget -

The minglings of sea and earth
- creel and plough
- fish and cornstalk
- shore people and shepherds
are the warp and weft that
go to make the very stuff of poetry.

© George Mackay Brown

portrait of GMB © Gordon Wright

In a nutshell:
GMB was born in Stromness, Orkney in 1921 and lived there all his life with the exceptions of a stay in Edinburgh for education and long spells in a sanatorium with TB. Stromness became his fictional and beloved Hamnavoe which featured in a lot in his work.
During his life he published some 33 collections of poems, 15 collections of short stories and 6 novels plus plays, non-fiction and children's stories - a prodigious output of high quality works. Several volumes have also been published posthumously by his literary executors. From 1944 till a few days before his death in 1996, he wrote weekly columns for local newspapers, a fount of local and personal interest.
After many years of enquiry, GMB became a Catholic in 1960, something which brought him increasing solace in his later years. When he died, his cortege passed many of the historical monuments he had written about, scenes of his greatest imaginings. His requiem took place in St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, the first Catholic mass to take place there for many centuries. His friend and collaborator Sir Peter Maxwell Davies played the evocative piano piece 'Farewell to Stromness'.