1967: A letter from George Mackay Brown
A Spell for Green Corn
George Mackay Brown - With thaniks to the Orkney Library Archives
Set in the seventeenth century,
A Spell for Green Corn is described as a ‘chronicle in six scenes’ telling the
story of a young Orkney girl, her seduction by a wanton fiddler, and her
subsequent execution by burning for the crime of witchcraft.
‘When the farmers have done everything and failed, it’s time for poet and witch to begin their spells.’
John Aitkenhead may have written to Mackay Brown after having heard A Spell for Green Corn over the radio , as it was written for the BBC as a play and was first broadcast in 1967. It was later published as a book in 1970
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