Para Handy

Para Handy – Scottish icon!
Para Handy is surely one of the most remarkably resilient comic characters ever created. He first appeared in the columns of the Glasgow Evening News in 1905 and has never been out of print since.

Created by the Scottish novelist and journalist Neil Munro

 

the Para Handy stories tell of the adventures of Para Handy,  Captain Peter Macfarlane, and the crew of the puffer Vital Spark.

What’s a puffer? A small steam lighter mainly used to carry general cargoes around the West of Scotland.

Despite the fact that the puffer has disappeared from our waters (apart from a couple of museum ships) and the world that they inhabited has changed almost beyond recognition, the stories have retained their freshness and humour in a quite remarkable way.

A typical puffer.

My co-editor, Ronnie Armstrong, and I were delighted and thrilled to discover 19 original stories, which had previously been unpublished in book form, in the files of the News  and have included these, along with notes and introductory material and archive photographs in our Birlinn edition of the Complete Para Handy.

Click below and you will be taken to Amazon.co.uk where you can buy this book.

For more about Neil Munro check out the Neil Munro Society website http://www.neilmunro.co.uk/