Dismissed as the work of pranksters, these mysterious flattenings should now be seen as stunning examples of non-profit art for all, says this bestselling author, who recalls the wonder they injected into the 1980s
As the sun rose over Wiltshire, Hampshire and Gloucestershire in the summer of 1989, farmers discovered that their swaying fields of barley, wheat and oats had been used to host a new phenomenon: crop circles. They reached their apotheosis during those balmy months, thanks to a sudden proliferation and blanket mainstream media coverage, but the narrative was dominated by discussions of possible alien visitation or just the wilful vandalism of it all. At the time, few people thought to judge crop circles on their artistic merit but, three decades on, the time may have come for such a reappraisal.
Britain in the 1980s was a country lacking in mystery, magic and enchantment. Then, as now, it was a time of conflict, division and ideological battles – free market v unionised labour; police state v workers – all overseen by the cold pragmatism of the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, as she ruthlessly pursued war on distant soil and the “managed decline” of industries such as coalmining and shipbuilding.
