January 25, 2009, marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, one of the most beloved poets in all of English literature. Arnold Johnston's The Witching Voice brings to life the crucial years from 1784 to 1788, when Burns rose from poverty and obscurity as an Ayrshire farmer to nationwide acclaim and lionization by the aristocracy of Edinburgh, Scotland's capital and a bastion of the European Enlightenment. Written in the same Scots-English that Burns made so familiar to the world, The Witching Voice is based on extensive research. It pulls no punches, offering a clear picture of the gifts, demons, and shortcomings of this poet who continues to charm us. As Richard Katrovas puts it, The Witching Voice conjures "the sexy soul of an angelic rogue." Peopled by a lively array of characters, the novel captures the flavor of Burns' work, his turbulent social and romantic life, his struggles against a class system that set more store by ancestry than ability, and his often bitterly comic encounters with moral and religious hypocrisy.

January 25, 2009, marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, one of the most beloved poets in all of English literature. Arnold Johnston's The Witching Voice brings to life the crucial years from 1784 to 1788, when Burns rose from poverty and obscurity as an Ayrshire farmer to nationwide acclaim and lionization by the aristocracy of Edinburgh, Scotland's capital and a bastion of the European Enlightenment. Written in the same Scots-English that Burns made so familiar to the world, The Witching Voice is based on extensive research. It pulls no punches, offering a clear picture of the gifts, demons, and shortcomings of this poet who continues to charm us. As Richard Katrovas puts it, The Witching Voice conjures "the sexy soul of an angelic rogue." Peopled by a lively array of characters, the novel captures the flavor of Burns' work, his turbulent social and romantic life, his struggles against a class system that set more store by ancestry than ability, and his often bitterly comic encounters with moral and religious hypocrisy.