Although he has fallen out of fashion nowadays, Samuel Rutherford Crockett (1859–1914) was one of the most popular authors of his time. The success of the ‘Kailyard’ authors created a demand for stories that harked back to the ‘romantic’ Highland past of Scotland and Crockett was the author of more than 40 books in this tradition. The books often had a historical setting and were frequently set in his native Galloway. Crockett died in France in 1914.