‘THE TWELVE MAIDENS’ – STEWART FARRAR

BBC TRANSCRIPTION DISCS

THREE X BBC TRANSCRIPTION DISCS OF THE RADIO ADAPTATION OF STEWART FARRAR’S ‘THE TWELVE MAIDENS’ FROM 1971

6 x 30 MINUTE EPISODES, THE FIRST BROADCAST ON THE 17TH JULY 1971. WITH MARTIN JARVIS AND PATRICIA GALLIMORE.

A VERY ATMOSPHERIC EXPERIENCE

EPISODES NAMED ‘THE BLACK ARC’, ‘WHITE AGAINST BLACK’, ‘THE NEW WITCH’, ‘BLACK MIDSUMMER’, THE CHALLANGE’ AND ‘ THE FINAL ROUND’

In 1973, the BBC approached Stewart Farrar to write a one-episode radio play, which was to become the basis for his novel, Twelve Maidens. At the highest reaches of Maiden Tor, a coven of witches gather around the Twelve Maidens, a Neolithic stone circle, to practice black magick. Below in the English countryside, members of a scientific team who are testing a groundbreaking radar system begin to lose their lives. The scientists realize quickly that their enemies on Maiden Tor cannot be fought with technology. With nowhere else to turn, they enlist the help of a coven of white witches. What follows is an exciting battle between the forces of good and evil, one that can only be contained by the deep forces of the occult world.

Stewart was born on June 28, 1916 in Highams Park, Essex. Stewart was raised as a Christian scientist, but by the age of 20 he had became an agnostic, which he remained until initiated into the Craft in 1970.

From 1969 to 1974 Stewart was a feature writer for the weekly Reveille, a job that got him his introduction into Witchcraft. Late in 1969 he was assigned to attend a press preview of the film, Legend of Witches, for which Alexander and Maxine Sanders had given technical advice, and who were present at the preview. Reveille was interested in the story. Stewart was skeptical about Witchcraft but was interested in Sanders upon meeting him. Sanders invited Stewart to attend a Witchcraft initiation, which Stewart did. He found the ceremony both dignified and moving. He wrote a two-part feature story on it for the magazine, which gained him Sanders' favor. Sanders informed him that the publisher of his own biography King of the Witches was looking for an author to writer another book on modern Witchcraft. Stewart got the contract for What Witches Do. Also, he begun attending Sanders' training classes. At first he was sympathetic, but a skeptical outsider. However, the instructions struck a personal chord within Stewart, and on February 21, 1970, Maxine Sanders initiated him into the coven, where he met Janet Owen.

On December 22, 1970 the Farrars formed their own London coven. The Sanders separated separated shortly afterward. The final time which the Farrars saw Sanders was in 1971 when What Witches Do was published. The book clearly established Farrar as a voice that promoted the Wiccan community. However, the book was controversial in that it included incidents which Sanders fabricated about himself plus Farrar's insertion that he ranked Sanders above Gerald B.Gardner and alongside of Aleister Crowley and Eliphas Levi in terms of magical achievement. Later Farrar admitted that he had been too credulous and no long placed Sanders on the same level as Crowley, Levi, and Gardner. Farrar, nevertheless, refused to disparage "the enfant terrible of British Witchcraft," adding that Sanders had made significance contributions to the Craft.

The Farrars built up their own coven from 1970 to 1976. On January 31, 1974, they were handfasted in a ceremony attended by Stewart's two sons and two daughters from a previous marriage who also took part in the ceremony. They were legally married on July 19, 1975. Stewart left Reveille in 1974 to become a full-time freelance writer.

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