Kailyard school, late 19th-century movement inScottish fiction characterized by a sentimental idealization of humble village life. Its name derives from the Scottish “kail-yard,” a small cabbage patch usuallyadjacent to a cottage. The Kailyard novels of prominent writers such as Sir JamesBarrie, author ofAuld Licht Idylls (1888) andA Window in Thrums (1889),Ian Maclaren (pseudonym of John Watson), and S.R.Crockett were widely read throughoutScotland, England, and theUnited States and inspired many imitators. The natural and unsophisticated style andparochial viewpoint quickly degenerated into mawkish sentimentality, which provoked a hostile reaction among contemporary Scottish realists and later writers of the 20th century.