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Introduction

Book In Print 2008

Forthcoming Titles

eBay Shop

January 2008

From time-to-time we get inquiries about Robert Marwick's Rousay Roots. Rousay Roots is long out of print but is available on the web via this link. Please note that we had nothing to do with the publication of the printed editions of Rousay Roots - it was entirely self-produced and self-published by Robert himself.

A completely new and redesigned web site will soon be ready to replace this pretty awful patched-together affair, which was only ever meant to be temporary.

After another long and unplanned hiatus, the long-awaited reprint of Hugh Marwick's Orkney Norn is nearing completion and should be on its way to the printers soon. The new edition will feature an introduction by Dr Robert McColl Millar of Aberdeen University. Dr Millar is well-known for his work as a historical linguist. His most recent work, Northern and Insular Scots, was published by the Edinburgh University Press in January 2007.

Our eBay shop is being gradually expanded to include an eclectic mix of books about Scottish history, culture - all sorts of things really - from a variety of Scottish publishers. It'll be worth a look if you're interested in all things Scottish.

Introduction

Brinnoven publishes a small number of Scottish-interest titles, focussing on local history, natural history, dialects and languages.

Our books are available from any good bookshop in the UK.

Alternatively, we are happy to supply books by mail order, and all of our titles are available on eBay.

We are happy to answer any queries you may have by e-mail.

 The Wildlife of Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre

Craig Whyte, ISBN 1-899851-05-4, 96 pages, 32 illus, pbk, £5.99

Orkney is a land awash with natural and cultural treasures; nowhere more so than on the islands of Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre. These three isles share an archaeological, historical and natural heritage that is as rich as any comparable area of northern Europe.

Join Craig Whyte, one-time warden of the RSPB reserve on Rousay, as he takes you on a journey through a diverse landscape of windswept heather-clad hills, lush green pastures, rich wetlands, dramatic sea cliffs and soft, sheltered shores. You will discover a land of birds, seals, otters and wild fl owers; a land in which people and wealth of wildlife have lived side by side for countless generations.

A systematic list of bird species, including records dating from the mid nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth, is a valuable resource for the birdwatcher, while the author’s colourful habitat descriptions, with reference to his personal experience of the islands, forms the main body of text.

 From My Rousay Schoolbag

Robert C. Marwick, ISBN 1-899851-03-8, 85 pages, 22 illus, pbk, £7.50

This book is the result of Robert C. Marwick's research into the history of the schools on his native island of Rousay, in Orkney.

Contents: Preface, 'A School in every Parish' John Knox, 'Society' Schools, Rousay's Parish School, The Assembly School, The Free Kirk School, Rousay School Board, Rousay Schools 1918-1960, Rousay Community School, Gleanings from the School Logbooks, Tales out of School, Teachers, Appendix.

To have a book placed for sale in Kirkwall shops one week and be sold out awaiting more copies the next says more for its merit than a mere reviewer can...The history is told in short, easily digested chapters and covers schools in the three main districts...This is followed by "Gleanings from the School Log Books" which should prove a real eye-opener for present and future scholars. Thereafter comes "Tales out of School", potted versions of former pupils' memories: some of these make hilarious reading...Six short tables of statistics which appear at intervals throughout the book are informative, and add considerably to one's understanding of the text.

The Orkney View

The Orkney Norn

(The A4 edition is out of print. A new edition is due early 2008)

Hugh Marwick, ISBN 1-899851-??-?, TBD pages, pbk, £TBD

Although it was originally published in 1929, The Orkney Norn is still the most authoritative work ever published on the Orcadian language. In addition to a dictionary of Norn words this book also contains a history of the Orkney Norn tracing its phonological development from Old Norse, fragments of old rhymes and riddles, an examination of the 12th-century Maeshow runes and printed specimens of Orkney Norn from the 14th and 15th centuries.

What can one say except that it is a long awaited event. The book itself needs no introduction, containing as it does a definitive history of the Norn language and a wealth of words salvaged from oblivion...This reprint is, as we have come to expect from Brinnoven, better than the original. The pages are bigger, the print clearer and it is altogether more easily read. There is the added bonus of an excellent article about Dr Marwick's work.

The Orkney View

The Place-Names of Rousay

(The A4 edition is out of print. A new edition is due in 2008)

Hugh Marwick, ISBN 1-899851-??-?, TBD pages, 2 illus, pbk, £TBD

Born on the Orkney island of Rousay in 1881 Hugh Marwick became one of the most prolific Orcadian scholars of the 20th century. He wrote what are still regarded as the seminal works on Orcadian place-names and the Orcadian language. Originally published in 1947 this volume is dedicated to his fellow islanders, and contains a fascinating description of the origin of the place-names on his native island.

If it is possible to improve on the original edition of the book, then Brinnoven has succeeded in doing so. I venture to think that Dr Marwick himself would have approved of the editing and it certainly helps to clarify the text in places. Added bonuses are a short biography of Dr Marwick and a list of his published work.

The Orkney View