Crockett wrote in the style of the 'Kailyard School' of writing,
which had become popular in the later years of the 19th Century.
Kailyard writers, although writing in Lowland Scots, were accused
of sanitising Scottish life and creating an overly sentimental and
unrealistic view of rural living hiding many of the hardships of
day to day life. It is a style most commonly associated with the
writer J.M. Barrie. Crockett's writing however was not always so
idealistic. His stories were often realistic depictions of the
working life of miners or factory workers or dramatic and bloody
affairs about Covenanters, family feuds and even , in 'The Grey
Man' the horror of the legendary story of Sawney Bean and his
family of cannibals.
"For such monsters have not been heard of, much less seen, in
the history of any country as were Sawney Bean and his crew in the
cave upon the seashore of Bennanbrack."
Due to ill health Crockett often spent the winter abroad and he
died suddenly in France in 1914.
Recommended reading:
• The Stickit Minister - 1893
• The Raiders - 1894
• The Lilac Sun-bonnet - 1894
• Mad Sir Uchtred - 1894
• The Men of the Moss Hags - 1895
• Cleg Kelly - 1896
• The Grey Man - 1896
• The Surprising Adventures of Sir Toady Lion - 1897
• Lochinvar - 1898
• The Red Axe - 1898
• The Black Douglas - 1899
• Kit Kennedy - 1899
• Joan of the Sword Hand - 1900
• Little Anna Mark - 1900
• Flower o' the Corn - 1902
• Red Cap Tales - 1904
• Adventurer in Spain - 1904
• The White Plumes of Navarre - 1906
• Men of the Mountain - 1909
