A land-based metaphysic …

… An Orkney Tapestry by George Mackay Brown - review by John Burnside. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Increasingly troubled by what he called the ‘new religion’ of progress – ‘concerned only with material things … a rootless utilitarian faith, without beauty or mystery’ – he offered in An Orkney Tapestry (originally commissioned by Gollancz as a tourist guide) a lyrical investigation of all the ways that our connection with the land (or lack of it) determines our sense of belonging.