Transcript:

8th May 1994

Dear Madeleine,
Thank you for your very kind letter.
It is a great pleasure for a writer to know that some of his work has been enjoyed by readers.

Mostly writers move in a fog of uncertainty, not knowing how his work is being received, and depending entirely on his own conscience as to what is true and good.  So it is very reassuring to hear a voice of encouragement coming out of the mist.

My kind regards to you and your students.

Yours sincerely
George Mackay Brown

PS:  About the 'fugal' aspect of 5 Green Waves and the pictorial qualities – I am quite ignorant of music and painting – so I can't say that my stories and poems have any parallels in music and art!
Enjoy the summer if and when it comes.


Madeleine wrote:

I teach English at uni in Hamburg and have read a number of his short stories with various classes. One group – and me too!! – were particularly taken with "Five Green Waves" and I wrote to him at the time, telling him how much we'd enjoyed the story and asking about a possible musical aspect – it seemed to me like a fugue.

Note:
Five Green Waves is published in the collection A Calendar of Love, re-issued in paperback in 2000 by John Murray Publishers Ltd, and is currently still in print.