27 JANUARY 1996, Page 34

Attie Campbell

1900-1967 Where do you wander now, old friend? Where do you drink?

Few inns better than Hamnavoe bar, Few better stories, I think.

Is there a star Stirred with laughter that has no end A million light-years beyond the Milky Way Where Villon and Burns, Falstaff and slant-eyed Li Po Order their nectar by turns (No 'Time, gents', there, no drinker has to pay) And words immortal gather head and flow?

For that far glim you'd crank your aged car, But that the faint bell-cry Of tide changing in Hoy Sound, The corn surges that salve the deep plough-wound, Would draw you home to where you are At Warbeth, among the dead who do not die.

George Mackay Brown