Neil Munro, Scottish Author

1863-1930

Neil Munro was a novelist, poet and journalist born in Inveraray. (Click on his name to read all about him!) He spent most of his life in Glasgow working for the Glasgow Evening News. Best known for his historical novels, all set in Scotland, but his most famous books were the Para Handy books written under the name Hugh Foulis.

Para Handy was a skipper of the Vital Spark, a Clyde Puffer. Munro wrote tales of his adventures delivering goods from Glasgow to Loch Fyre, the Hebrides and up the western coast of the Highlands. So popular were the tales that the BBC made them into a TV series The Tales of Para Handy in 1959 and a second series The Vital Spark in the 1960's. Watch the TV show on youtube!

Bibliography:

The Lost Pibroch, and Other Sheiling Stories (1896)
John Splendid: the Tale of a Poor Gentleman and Little Wars of Lorn (1898)
Gilian the Dreamer (1899)
The Shoes of Fortune (1901)
Doom Castle: A Romance (1901)
Children of Tempest: A Tale of the Other Isles (1903)
Erchie, My Droll Friend [by H(ugh) F(oulis)] (1904)
The Vital Spark and her Queer Crew [by H.F.] (1906)
The Clyde, River and Firth (1907)
The Daft Days (1907)
Fancy Farm (1910)
In Highland Harbours with Para Handy, s.s., Vital Spark [by H.F.] (1911)
Ayrshire Idylls (1912)
The New Road (1914)
Jaunty Jock and Other Stories (1918)
Jimmy Swan, the Joy Traveller [by H.F.] (1923)
Hurricane Jack of the Vital Spark [by H.F.] (1923)
The Poetry of Neil Munro, introduced by John Buchan (1931)
The Brave Days: A Chronicle from the North, ed. by George Blake (1931)
The Looker-On, ed. by George Blake (1933) (essays)
Para Handy Tales (1958)
Para Handy, First complete edition, ed. by Brian D. Osborne and Ronald Armstrong (1991)
Erchie and Jimmy Swan, First complete edition, ed. by Brian D. Osborne and Ronald Armstrong (1993)

You can get several of his books in digital copy at ManyBooks.net including a couple of Para Handy books. And be sure and check out the bibliography on The Neil Munro Society site for a description of each one.

I thought you might find him interesting for the Read Scotland Challenge and oh yes we will be doing it again in 2015! I've downloaded several of his books to read. Have you ever read anything by him? Let us know what you thought.

Peggy Ann