Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush Paperback -- Ian MacLaren

<p>Ian Maclaren was the pen name for the Rev. Dr John Watson who was born in Manningtree, Essex on 3rd November 1850.</p><p>Watson was educated at Stirling in Scotland before studying at Edinburgh University. After graduating he then trained as a Free Church minister at New College in Edinburgh, as well as undertaking postgraduate studies at Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany a renowned centre for Theological and Religious Studies.</p><p>In 1874 he obtained his license from the Free Church of Scotland and became assistant minister of Edinburgh Barclay Church.</p><p>The following year, 1875, he was ordained as minister at Logiealmond in Perthshire before in 1877, transferring to St Matthews Free Church in Glasgow.</p><p>In 1880 Watson became minister of Sefton Park Presbyterian Church in Liverpool and became a prime instigator for the founding of the Westminster College in Cambridge.</p><p>Watson published his first volume of short stories, 'Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush', about rural Scottish life in 1894, under the pseudonym Ian MacLaren; the book became a best-seller with sales of over 700,000 copies.</p><p>Further works followed including 'The Days of Auld Lang Syne' (1895), 'Kate Carnegie and those Ministers' (1896), and 'Afterwards and other Stories' (1898).</p><p>Several volumes of sermons, under his own name, were also published including 'The Upper Room' (1895), 'The Mind of the Master' (1896) and 'The Potter's Wheel' (1897).</p><p>In 1896 he was made the Lyman Beec