''The Witch's Daughter'' is a children's novel by

Nina Bawden Nina Mary Bawden CBE, FRSL, JP (19 January 1925 – 22 August 2012) was an English novelist and children's writer. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1987 and the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010. She was a recipient of the Golden PEN ...

, first published in 1966. It has been dramatised for television twice, with

Fiona Kennedy Fiona Kennedy Clark (born 2 July 1955), OBE, DL is a Scottish singer, actress and broadcaster, and the daughter of Scottish and Gaelic singers Calum Kennedy and Anne Gillies. As a child she appeared with her parents as they performed as a fami ...

(1971) and Sammy Glenn (1996) in the title role.

Plot summary

On the small remote Scottish isle of Skua, Perdita has been branded "the witch's daughter" by islanders. They believe her mother died cursing the sea on which they depend for their livelihood (most of the men are fishermen). She lives in a tumbledown house by the loch, alone apart from the housekeeper Annie, never goes to school and has no friends. The house's owner, Mr Smith, is usually absent and expects Perdita to keep out of his way when he is there. The village children avoid or bully her, saying she's a witch like her mother. One summer Janey, who is blind, and her elder brother Tim visit the island with their naturalist father who wants to find a rare orchid that might grow there. Another English tourist, Mr Jones, arrives at the same time and also stays in the hotel (a village inn with a few rooms). The children befriend the lonely girl Perdita, though she is at first very shy as she has only experienced cruelty from other children before. Mr Smith arrives to stay in his old house with Annie and Perdita. One evening Perdita overhears Mr Jones in the kitchen talking with Mr Smith. Together they search for fossils (mostly Tim, who's very interested in fossils), explore the island's caves, investigate an old unsolved crime as well as a current one after Tim's father is assaulted, and find treasure. They are threatened by the crooks calling themselves Jones and Smith (not their real names) who had stolen many valuable jewels from deposit boxes during a bank robbery a few years before and hidden them in the island's sea-caves, but eventually the children are unharmed and the thieves don't manage to get the stolen treasure back. The children find the hidden jewels and they are handed to the police for return to the bank. Tim and Janey's holiday ends and their father is with them as they board the ferry to leave the island. Perdita comes to them just as the ferry is leaving with a bunch of wild flowers she has picked for Janey - they are the ones their father had been searching for, so it seems they might return to the island another time so that Perdita can show him where they grow. As Perdita is now something of a hero the local children stop being so mean to her; also she is expected to start attending school soon after the end of the story and will be less isolated.

Television adaptations

''The Witch's Daughter'' has been twice adapted for television. The 1971

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

adaptation was a five-episode mini-series starring

as Perdita,

Gillian Bailey Gillian Bailey (born 14 June 1955 in Wimbledon, London), also known as Gilli Bush-Bailey, is a British actress and professor. She was a child actress and appeared as Billie in '' Here Come the Double Deckers'' (1970–71). Other roles included ...

as Janey and

Spencer Banks Spencer Banks (born 1954 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield) is a British television actor. He was mainly active in the 1970s, when he tended to play a geeky adolescent in glasses. He starred in two significant programmes: the popular chi ...

as Tim. The 1996

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now legally known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchisee for Central Belt, Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation si ...

production was a 90-minute television film, with Sammy Glenn as Perdita, Richard Claxton as Tim,

Peter Firth Peter Macintosh Firth (born 27 October 1953) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC One programme '' Spooks''; he is the only actor to have appeared in every episode of the programme's ten-series lif ...

as Mr Jones, and

Patrick Bergin Patrick Connolly Bergin (born 4 February 1951) is an Irish actor and singer. In 1991, he starred opposite Julia Roberts in '' Sleeping with the Enemy'' and played the title character in ''Robin Hood''. His other roles include terrorist Kevin O' ...

as Mr Smith. Changes between the novel and the film included the excision of the character Janey and a more upbeat ending.IMDB on 1996 TV movie
/ref> The 1996 TV movie was directed by Alan Macmillan.

References

External links

''The Witch's Daughter'' at Fantastic Fiction
{{DEFAULTSORT:Witchs Daughter 1966 British novels 1966 children's books British children's novels Novels set in Scotland Novels set on islands British novels adapted into films Children's books adapted into films British novels adapted into television shows Children's books adapted into television shows Novels by Nina Bawden Victor Gollancz Ltd books