One difficult aspect of writing about real historical figures is assimilating the amount of information already known. Giving a voice to Mary CampbellĪfter writing an article about their story for The Highlander Magazine in the USA some years ago, I wanted to write a novel that would give voice to Mary herself. Meanwhile, Burns’ first book of poems, the Kilmarnock Edition, was published to great acclaim and they were destined never to meet again. Mary took lodgings with distant relatives while waiting for Burns to arrive. Departing Ayrshire, Mary visited her family in Campbeltown before going on to Greenock, where her brother worked in the shipyards. My Highland lassie was a warm-hearted, charming young creature as ever blessed a man with generous love.'īurns and Mary planned to sail to Jamaica from Greenock, after plighting their troth across a stream on the banks of Ayr, but their romance was short-lived. He wrote: 'This was a composition of mine in very early life, before I was known at all in the world. She soon caught the eye of the poet farmer and the song, The Highland Lassie, O’ was written by Burns in the spring of 1786.
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