The poet, novelist and short story writer, George Mackay Brown, was born in Stromness on the mainland of Orkney. Whilst studying at the University of Edinburgh in the late 1930s, Brown became a member of the circle of distinguished poets. He then returned to Orkney where he spent the rest of his life. Brown's character was gentle and melancholic and his poetry displays similar traits. This photograph is part of a series commissioned by Glasgow’s Third Eye Centre to accompany an exhibition of paintings and drawings of Scottish poets by Alexander Moffat. It shows Brown leaning against a window-ledge reading a newspaper. The sunlight casts strong shadows across the scene.