May 9th is J.M.Barrie's 160th birthday. 'live' celebrations were curtailed due to coronavirus but there's some online activity for those who want to commemorate and/or learn more about Barrie.   Click HERE (takes you to the J.M.Barrie Lit Soc site) 
May 9th also sees the launch of the 3rd Volume of the J. M. Barrie Literary Society Journal.

This year's title is 'Man and Boy' and its a bumper edition.  You can buy the paperback edition of the Journal HERE or download the digital one straight away HERE
Earlier Journals and other Barrie works are also available at the J.M.Barrie lLit Soc Collection HERE 

(Please note that because of lockdown all unco books are being sent direct from the printer/distributor and this incurs some extra postage. To defray that, we suggest you order more than one book - our catalogues have more than 100 to choose from, so why not treat yourself for Barrie's birthday?!) 

To commemorate the 160th anniversary of J.M.Barrie's birth the J.M.Barrie Literary Society planned a number of events which have sadly been curtailed by coronavirus.  However, one was held before Lockdown, a collaborative event as part of the Cambridge Science Festival on March 10th.  Here's a recording of Prof Rosalind Ridley and Dr Sarah Green whose topic was: 

J.H.Millar is credited as originating the term 'Kailyard' as a literary phenomenon (or stigma) in his article of April 1895 in The New Review.   It's not entirely true.  However, for over a century the term has been used as a term of offence regarding particular Scottish authors, and some kinds of Scottish literature - and even Scots culture much more broadly.   Over the past quarter of a century there has been a shift towards seeing 'Kailyard' as a critical concept, but the authors damned with the title have still suffered from the slur.  Foremost among these 'unco' authors are J.M.Barrie and S.R.Crockett.   Both of their work is well represented by Society catalogues in the unco Bookstore. 

I've been studying and researching the work of these two authors since the 1990s and while my exploration (and expose) of Kailyard is still incomplete, it seemed right that in this 125th anniversary year, I start  turning over the soil in public.  
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I'm starting with  'The Offending Article' by J.H.Millar ( with more than a little help from W.E.Henley) and some other contextual articles.   You can download the digital text (PDF format) from the Unco bookstore HERE and it's free if you're a member of the 'unco' community.  Otherwise, it'll  cost you £1.99

Cally Phillips