by lain Crichton Smith abridged as a seven-part reading from an unpublished novel set in Sutherland during the Highland Clearances
PART I
Reader, BRYDEN MURDOCH
Broadcast on July 2. 1967 (Radio
4: Scotland)
The late eighteenth century saw the start of the brutal period of enforced Highland emigration known as the Clearances, and Consider the Lilies has its origin in the eviction of an old woman by Patrick Sellar. factor to the Duke of Sutherland. It is less a historical novel, however, than a compassionate study of its main character; and while its cadences are Scottish, its indictment of cruelty is universal.
Stewart Conn