Arguably one of the most significant Scottish novels of all time and a direct influence on the writing of Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Hugh MacDiarmid among others. The House with the Green Shutters is a powerful antidote to the homely, selfsatisfied 'kailyard' style of the late 19th century – an uncompromising, violent expose of late Victorian society, it is as apt today as it was a hundred years ago. The much hated and envied businessman Gourlay looks down on the locals of Barbie (based on Ochiltree, Ayrshire) both physically and metaphorically from the house he has built on the brae overlooking the village. This is the tragic story of his downfall.