Ernest Walker Marwick was born in 1915 in Evie, Orkney. He left school aged ten, and thereafter was almost entirely self- educated. Working on the farm where he was brought up and then in a Kirkwall bookshop, he began writing in his teens and published articles and verse in newspapers and magazines. In 1955 he joined the staff of the Orkney Herald, where his contributions included a weekly column on Orkney folklore and history. In the early 1960s he became a freelance writer and broadcaster, publishing numerous articles in Britain and abroad, and making over 800 broadcasts for the BBC. He lectured widely and was founder member and subsequently chairman of the Orkney Heritage Society. In 1975 he received the freedom of the City and Royal Burgh of Kirkwall, and the following year the University of Edinburgh made him an Honorary Master of Arts. He died in 1977.
Ernest Marwick was compiler and editor of An Anthology of Orkney Verse (1949), editor of Walter Traill Dennison’s Orkney Folklore and Traditions (1961), and author of The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland (1975).
The Anthology has been meticulously and sympathetically edited by John Robertson, a close friend and fellow Orcadian. He has succeeded in highlighting the many themes and qualities of Ernest Walker Marwick’s work, provided extensive, well-researched footnotes on historical and linguistic points, and supplied cross-references together with a glossary of Orkney words and expressions. In a number of places he has reworked and updated material for the benefit of the modern reader.