[In the following review, Olson finds the stories of Brown's Winter Tales "as poetic as any of his verse."]

These 18 stories [in Winter Tales] by Orkney poet Brown are as poetic as any of his verse; indeed, the shortest, especially "Shell Story," about the widows of lost fishermen tossing scraps to gulls, are prose poems, although in the manner of folktales rather than the meditation or wry jape usual for the form. Several stories are, like many Brown poems, calendars consisting of 12 monthly sections, always ending at Yuletide. They range in style from the 12 tiny impressions that add up to "A Nativity Tale" to long character sketches, such as "Ikey," about a tinker (itinerant) boy who is a mascot to the stabler folk of the islands he tramps, and "The Woodcarver," a dourly comic look at a genuine folk artist. A few stories are sui generis, "Lieutenant Bligh and Two Midshipmen" outstandingly so; read it to learn what historical fiction ought to sound like—an aural slice of its era, not modern speech dressed, as it were, in period drag. This collection, like the star associated with its season, shines with gentle brilliance.