North Ronaldsay Voices

Ann Marwick spent many hours in the 1980/90s chatting to folk in North Ronaldsay and learning about the dialect, customs and lifestyles of the island in a bygone age.

These priceless conversations now form part of the Orkney Library Sound Archive and she has now harvested the best bits into North Ronaldsay Voices.

According to poet Robert Rendall, even Orcadians regard a visit to North Ronaldsay as an adventure. In this book we discover why . . .

'The accounts in this book are often personal memories, reflecting the life stories of individual people. However they are also the collective experience of a community. I have visited now for over 35 years and have built a close relationship with the island. I have recorded family groups including husbands and wives, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons and on one memorable occasion, three Thomson sisters, daughters of the great storyteller Willie O'Neven. Their narratives have an honesty and integrity that give a remarkable glimpse of life on North Ronaldsay in the not so distant past'.