Sanday is one of the inhabited islands in the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland. With an area of 50.43 square kilometres (19.5 sq mi), it is the third largest of the Orkney Islands. The main centres of population are Lady Village and Kettletoft. Sanday can be reached by Orkney Ferries or plane from Kirkwall on the Orkney Mainland. Cultural activities revolve around the school.

Sanday, so called because of its sandy beaches, is thought to have been mostly underwater at some periods of prehistory. Archaeological evidence suggests that it at one time consisted of several smaller islands which joined together when the sea level decreased. There is a similarly named island, Sandoy, in the Faroe Islands. The island has large sand dunes where seals and otters can be found. Inland it is fertile and agricultural and there is some commercial lobster fishing. The underlying geology is predominantly Devonian sediments of the Rousay flagstone group with Eday sandstone in the south east.

Orkney (Scottish Gaelic: Arcaibh) also known as the Orkney Islands (and sometimes "the Orkneys", a name which locals disparage), is an archipelago in northern Scotland, 16 kilometres (10 mi) north of the coast of Caithness. Orkney comprises approximately 70 islands of which 20 are inhabited. The largest island, known as the "Mainland" has an area of 523.25 square kilometres (202.03 sq mi) making it the sixth largest Scottish island and the tenth-largest island in the British Isles. The largest settlement and administrative centre is Kirkwall.

The name "Orkney" dates back to the 1st century BC or earlier, and the islands have been inhabited for at least 8,500 years. Originally occupied by Mesolithic and Neolithic tribes and then by the Picts, Orkney was invaded and forcibly annexed by Norway in 875 and settled by the Norse. It was subsequently annexed to the Scottish Crown in 1472, following the failed payment of a dowry for James III's bride, Margaret of Denmark. Orkney contains some of the oldest and best-preserved Neolithic sites in Europe, and the "Heart of Neolithic Orkney" is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE (born 8 September 1934) is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.

Davies was born in Salford, Lancashire, the son of Thomas and Hilda Davies. He took piano lessons and composed from an early age. As a 14-year-old he submitted a composition called "Blue Ice" to BBC Children's Hour in Manchester. Producer Trevor Hill showed it to resident pianist Violet Carson who said "He's either quite brilliant or mad". Conductor Charles Groves nodded his approval and said, "I'd get him in". They did and his rise to fame began under the careful mentorship of Hill who made him their resident composer and introduced him to various professional musicians both in the UK and Germany. (The full story can be found in Over the Airwaves, the autobiography of Trevor Hill published by Book Guild in 2005). After education at Leigh Boys Grammar School, Davies studied at the University of Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of Music (amalgamated into the Royal Northern College of Music in 1973), where his fellow students included Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Elgar Howarth and John Ogdon. Together they formed New Music Manchester, a group committed to contemporary music. After graduating in 1956, he studied on an Italian government scholarship for a year with Goffredo Petrassi in Rome before working as Director of Music at Cirencester Grammar School from 1959 to 1962.

Peter Maxwell is an Austrian-born director of British films and television.