Ian Maclaren (1) (1850–1907)

Unlike in his other books Maclaren only rarely descends into the unbearable cloyingness of the 'kailyard school': he tries to be humorous and generally succeeds. That said, it's hard to turn a blind eye to one of the underlyig sentiments, namely that the only way of turning naughty boys into respectable citizens is abundant employment of the cane and the tawse.

The archetypal Kailyard School book, indeed the one from whose epigraph the school's name derives, it's not as bad as many critics claim it to be ... but it's bad enough, the mawkish passages quite outnumbering the enjoyable ones.

[From the preface to the World’s Classics edition of The House with the Green Shutters, Oxford University Press, 1938; reprinted in A Traveller in Romance, ed. John Whitehead, Clarkson N. Potter, 1984, p. 84:]

The Bonnie Brier Bush was written by a minister called Watson who used the pen-name of Ian Maclaren and opposite the table of contents are the following two lines:

There grows a bonnie brier-bush in our kail-yard
And white are the blossoms on’t in our kail-yard.

It narrates the events show more that occurred in the parish of Drumtochty and describes the characters, dour men with hearts of gold and tender women of simple nobility, who took part in them. We are told that Drumtochty had its own constitution and a special throat disease. It is borne in upon the persevering reader that this particular ailment was a lump in the throat. The author himself was seriously afflicted with it. These strong, but not silent men, for in their broad Scots they are uncommonly loquacious, do not weep, but in moments of emotion, and these moments are frequent, give one another a squeeze of their horny hands under the table. ‘Ah me!’ cries the author, ‘Ah me! the thud of the spade on your mother’s grave!’ The exasperating thing is that though people are brought to the point of death, or die, for no reason but to give the author a chance to wring your heart, he does this so effectually that before very long you too feel yourself affected with the special disease of Drumtochty and hateful tears rise to your eyes. show less

Fine hard back copy, gilt edged, over 50 black and white illustration, great Scottish dialect