We've made The Times!! (other national newspapers are available)

The Times Newspaper features an article today about Orkney Archive receiving the first batch of papers of George Mackay Brown on permanent loan. We're very excited about this acquisition and are very grateful to Archie and Elizabeth Bevan for agreeing that it is important to keep the papers of such a famous and revered writer in Orkney.

The twenty one boxes contain manuscripts, short stories, plays and more, including some rarer or unpublished works. The initial cataloguing of the papers has been carried out by University of Glasgow Postgraduate research student in Scottish Literature Linden Bicket (seen in the centre of the photograph, with Assistant Archivist Lucy and Archie Bevan) who was awarded a British Academy Small Grant to carry out the work.

We will soon make a list of the collection available on our web page. Linden has flown south for the winter but will return in April 2012 to resume cataloguing of the next batch.