In October, we welcome Donald S Murray, the award-winning writer from Lewis (now living in Shetland) whose work concerns the people of the Western and Northern Isles - their lives, history and culture.

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Donald's first book of stories and poems was published in 1997, when he was teaching at the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway, and he writes fiction, non-fiction, drama and poetry in Gaelic and English. 

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At our event, he will talk about the experiences and inspirations behind his work, focussing on his new collection of stories, poems and songs, Red Star Over Hebrides (Taproot 2023). In this book, Donald explores, through memory, knowledge and imagination, the social and cultural connections between the people of the Outer Hebrides and Russia and the Baltic States - links made in the 19th and 20th centuries, when Stornoway was the premier herring curing port in Europe.  He will  also mention his forthcoming novel, The Salt and the Flame, out in January.

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Donald has appeared at many book festivals and conferences around the world, and has been featured on BBC Radio nan Gaidheal, BBC Radio Four and BBC TV Channel Four.

 

Someone has written with reference to his writing about the peoples of the Western and Northern Isles that: '... Donald S Murray writes with wonderful wit and a real sense of intimacy of men and women from the Western Isles to Shetland whose characters, for generations, have been carved and weathered by the sea that fills their harbours, scours their shorelines and colours their perceptions of the world.'

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Penelope Hamilton