The Kailyard school (1880–1914) is a proposed literary movement of Scottish fiction dating from the last decades of the 19th century.

Origin and etymology

It was first given the name in an article published April 1895 in the ''New Review'' by J.H. Millar, though its editor

William Ernest Henley William Ernest Henley (23 August 184911 July 1903) was an English poet, writer, critic and editor. Though he wrote several books of poetry, Henley is remembered most often for his 1875 poem "Invictus". A fixture in London literary circles, the o ...

was heavily implicated to have created the term. The term was meant as a criticism that a certain group of Scottish authors offered an overly sentimental and idyllic representation of rural life, but it was potentially more a gripe against the popularity of the authors. The name derives from the Scots "kailyaird" or "kailyard", which means a small cabbage patch (see kale) or

kitchen garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

, usually adjacent to a cottage; but more famously from

Ian Maclaren John Watson (3 November 1850 – 6 May 1907), was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He is remembered as an author of fiction, known by his pen name Ian Maclaren. Life The son of John Watson, a civil servant, he was born in Manningtre ...

's 1894 book ''

Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush ''Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush'' is a book of short stories by Ian Maclaren published in 1894. It became a hugely popular bestseller. It is considered to be part of the Kailyard School of Scottish literature. A kailyard or kailyaird ( kale) is c ...

'' whose title alludes to the Jacobite song "There grows a bonnie brier bush in our Kailyard".

Writers and works

Writers who have been linked to the Kailyard school included

J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succ ...

, J. J. Bell,

George MacDonald George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational church, Congregational Minister (Christianity), minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature a ...

, Gabriel Setoun, Robina F. Hardy and

S. R. Crockett Samuel Rutherford Crockett (24 September 1859 – 16 April 1914), who published under the name "S. R. Crockett", was a Scottish novelist. Life and work He was born at Little Duchrae, Balmaghie, Kirkcudbrightshire, Galloway on 24 September 18 ...

. Works such as Barrie's ''Auld Licht Idylls'' (1888), ''A Window in Thrums'' (1889), and ''The Little Minister'' (1891); and Crockett's ''The Stickit Minister'' (1893) considered examples of the so called 'school'. Criticism came from certain branches of the English literary establishment including T. W. H. Crosland and from fellow Scots such as George Douglas Brown who aimed his 1901 novel ''

The House with the Green Shutters ''The House with the Green Shutters'' is a novel by the Scottish writer George Douglas Brown, first published in 1901 by John MacQueen. Set in mid-19th century Ayrshire, in the fictitious town of Barbie which is based on his native Ochiltree, ...

'' explicitly against what he called "the sentimental slop" of the Kailyard school. Much of

Hugh MacDiarmid Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid (), was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces behind the Scottish Rena ...

's work, and the

Scottish Renaissance The Scottish Renaissance ( gd, Ath-bheòthachadh na h-Alba; sco, Scots Renaissance) was a mainly literary movement of the early to mid-20th century that can be seen as the Scottish version of modernism. It is sometimes referred to as the Scot ...

associated with him, was a reaction against Kailyardism. Ian Carter has argued that the Kailyard school reflects a sentimental structure of feeling which has deep roots in Scottish literature and can be found in the works of Burns and Scott, and that the work of William Alexander and later Scottish Renaissance writers such as Lewis Grassic Gibbon can be seen as the assertion of a democratic structure of feeling which is in tension with it.

Criticism

Scottish literary criticism right up till the 1980s used the term but critics like Andrew Nash have argued that it was a social construct rather than an actual literary movement. The reputations, particularly of J.M. Barrie and S.R. Crockett have still to be reclaimed from what was essentially a publishing spat, directed largely against

William Robertson Nicoll Sir William Robertson Nicoll (10 October 18514 May 1923) was a Scottish Free Church minister, journalist, editor, and man of letters. Biography Nicoll was born in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire, the son of Rev. Harry Nicoll (1812–1891), a Free Chu ...

by English Conservative publishers in what might today be seen as an example of cultural imperialism.

References in literature

John Ashbery references the school in his book of poems, ''April Galleons'', his protagonist lamenting mildly that "nobody I know ever talks about the Kailyard School, at least not at the dinner parties I go to".John Ashbery, ''Notes from the Air'' (2007) p. 27

References

External links

Kailyard School (1886-1896)
The Literary Encyclopedia

Maggie Scott, Lecturer in English Language, University of Salford, published in ''The Bottle Imp''

ezine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer magaz ...

by the Association for Scottish Literary Studies. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kailyard School Scottish literary movements 19th-century British literature 20th-century British literature