George Mackay Brown letters (National Library of Scotland)

Letters which tell the story of a remarkable friendship that inspired one of Scotland's greatest modern writers have been acquired by the National Library of Scotland. George Mackay Brown - the so called 'Bard of Orkney' - was 64 when he first met Kenna Crawford who, at 26, was less than half his age. That was in 1986 and over the next few years around 100 handwritten letters and several poems were sent by Mackay Brown to the woman who was his last muse. He credited her with inspiring a new period of creativity after a time when he had written very little