Ernest Walker Marwick (born 1915 Evie, Orkney; died July 1977) was a Scottish Orcadian writer noted for his writings on

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

folklore and history. Marwick's father was a travelling salesman who had a

smallholding A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...

in the parish of Evie, to the north of

Mainland, Orkney The Mainland, also known as Pomona, is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections. Seventy-five per cent of Orkney's popu ...

. Diagnosed with

scoliosis Scoliosis (: scolioses) is a condition in which a person's Vertebral column, spine has an irregular curve in the coronal plane. The curve is usually S- or C-shaped over three dimensions. In some, the degree of curve is stable, while in others ...

in 1925 when he was ten years old, Marwick could no longer attend school as his days had to be spent lying on a wooden board. He used the time of illness to read extensively. After Marwick's marriage his home provided a meeting-place for local intellectuals, including

George Mackay Brown George Mackay Brown (17 October 1921 – 13 April 1996) was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist with a distinctly Orkney, Orcadian character. He is widely regarded as one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century. Biography Early life a ...

and Robert Rendall. His ''Anthology of Orkney Verse'' was published in 1949. From 1955 to 1960 he was on the staff of the '' Orkney Herald'' newspaper. He subsequently moved to '' The Orcadian'', where he worked as a columnist and feature writer, his writing covering literary and other subjects. Other media work undertaken by Marwick included broadcasting on local and Scottish national radio programmes. Ernest Marwick was a founder member of the

Orkney Heritage Society The Orkney Heritage Society in Orkney, Scotland, is a nonprofit organisation founded in 1968. It promotes "the beauty, history and character of Orkney" as well as "high standards of architecture and planning" in Orkney. It organizes conferences ...

. He died in July 1977, having swerved off a straight road and crashed into a farm steading when driving. In 2015, one hundred years after his birth, Orkney International Science Festival focused attention on the contributions he made to Orkney's heritage.

Selected works

*''An Anthology of Orkney Verse'' (1949) *''The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland'' (1975) *''An Orkney Anthology: Selected Works of Ernest Walker Marwick Volume One'' ed. J.D.M. Robertson (1991) *''An Orkney Anthology: Selected Works of Ernest Walker Marwick Volume Two'' ed. J.D.M. Robertson, J.M. Irvine and M.E. Sutherland (2012)

References

Citations Bibliography * * * 1915 births 1977 deaths Writers from Orkney 20th-century Scottish historians Scottish folklorists Scottish journalists Road incident deaths in Scotland {{Orkney-stub