J. Storer (Joseph Storer) Clouston

Joseph Storer Clouston (1870–1944) was a Scottish author and historian, born in Cumberland to a family with deep Orkney roots. He was the son of Sir Thomas Clouston, studied in Edinburgh and at Oxford, trained in law, and was called to the bar, though writing became the center of his career.

He is best remembered for The Lunatic at Large (1899), a comic adventure that brought him wide readership and led to sequels. Alongside his fiction, he wrote historical and antiquarian work, especially connected with Orkney, and his books often reflect both humor and a lively interest in people, character, and local history.

After settling in Orkney, he took an active role in public life as well as literature. That combination of storyteller, historian, and civic figure gives his work a distinctive flavor: entertaining on the surface, but grounded in a real knowledge of Scottish and Orcadian life.