{"product_id":"beside-the-bonnie-brier-bush-paperback-9781639230884","title":"Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eIan Maclaren was the pen name for the Rev. Dr John Watson who was born in Manningtree, Essex on 3rd November 1850.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWatson 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1874 he obtained his license from the Free Church of Scotland and became assistant minister of Edinburgh Barclay Church.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe following year, 1875, he was ordained as minister at Logiealmond in Perthshire before in 1877, transferring to St Matthews Free Church in Glasgow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWatson 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFurther works followed including 'The Days of Auld Lang Syne' (1895), 'Kate Carnegie and those Ministers' (1896), and 'Afterwards and other Stories' (1898).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeveral 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).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1896 he was made the Lyman Beecher lecturer at Yale University, and in 1900 he was moderator of the synod of the English Presbyterian Church.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhilst travelling in the United States he died from blood poisoning, following a bout of tonsillitis, on 6th May at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. He was 56.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis body was repatriated to England, and buried in Smithdown Cemetery in Liverpool. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Lushena Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50496518979858,"sku":"9781639230884","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d0754e27-cdfb-453a-875c-3766cbaf993d.jpg?v=1730695670","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/beside-the-bonnie-brier-bush-paperback-9781639230884","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}