The story of Sir Walter Scott's anonymous authorship of the Waverley Novels, his money troubles, and his struggle to pay off the debts in which he was involved by the failure of Ballantyne's

Based chiefly on his Journal and Lockhart's Life, with James McKechnie as Sir Walter Scott
Music by Ian Whyte
Produced by Robert Kemp

The well-nigh incredible story of how Sir Walter Scott , bankrupt through years of social generosity and business carelessness, sat down, and, with his pen, earned something like £130,000 to pay off his debts, is one of the heroics of authorship. This evening you will hear how Scott, while searching for fishing tackle, discovered the discarded manuscript of 'Waverley', and decided to complete it. The 'Waverley Novels' which followed 'Waverley' in rapid succession, were published anonymously, and their whole prodigious output set a new fashion in literature. Scott made money as no author had done before him, but careless expenditure ruined him. He wore himself out in a prodigious task but for which literature would have been very much the poorer.