The Vital Spark by Neil Munro, Fiction, Classics, Action & Adventure

by Neil Munro, Hugh Foulis

Overview

ONE SAVVY SCOT SKIPPER

Ever wonder what it was like to be the Captain of a Clyde Puffer -- that is, a steamship on the beautiful lochs of the Scots highlands at the beginning of the twentieth century? Enter now the captivating world of Captain Para Handy and the irascible crew of The Vital Spark, called by it's captain "the best boat in the tread." Join Para Handy, (or, rather, Captain John Macfarlane, his real name) and his crew of characters, the wondrous Hurricane Jack, the effete engineer Dan Macphail, the superstitious ship's mate Dougie, Colin the Tar and his cousin Davie Green. Para Handy loses command of his beloved boat -- for a while. Read about a lost child, and the startling fate of a canary. Chuckle over Dougie's payday trouble with his wife. Plus a very odd Scots recipe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781606646175
Publisher:	Aegypan
Publication date:	02/01/2009
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Neil Munro (1863 - 1930) was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author and literary critic. He was basically a serious writer but is now mainly known for his humorous short stories, originally written under the pen name Hugh Foulis. (It seems that he was not making a serious attempt to disguise his identity, but wanted to keep his serious and humorous writings separate.) The best known were about the fictional Clyde puffer the Vital Spark and her captain Para Handy, but they also included stories about the waiter and kirk beadle Erchie MacPherson and the traveling drapery salesman Jimmy Swan. They were originally published in the Glasgow Evening News, but collections were published as books. A key figure in literary circles, Munro was a friend of the writers J. M. Barrie, John Buchan, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham and Joseph Conrad and the artists Edward A. Hornel, George Houston, Pittendrigh MacGillivray and Robert Macaulay Stevenson. He was an early promoter of the works of both Conrad and Rudyard Kipling.