Synopses & Reviews
Jimmy Swan, the enigmatic commercial traveler, is another classic comic character from the pen of Neil Munro, the master Scottish humorist. The result of Swan's experiences is a wonderfully entertaining collection, allowing the reader a marvelous insight into daily life in the west of Scotland at the turn of the nineteenth century. Each story is brimful of local and period detail and the editors have provided a full set of notes explaining those historical, cultural, biographical, linguistic, and geographical references that may not be obvious to the twenty-first century reader, but would have been very familiar from the news pages of their daily papers to the early twentieth-century reader. In addition a full introduction is given, setting these Glasgow tales in their context and providing information about their author, Munro.
About the Author
Neil Munro was born in 1863. He followed a career in journalism, eventually becoming editor of the Glasgow Evening News. He achieved great success as a poet and novelist, writing masterpieces of historical fiction such as John Splendid and The New Road as well as the humorous tales of Para Handy, Erchie, and Jimmy Swan. Munro died in 1930. Brian Osborne and Ronald Armstrong have written and edited numerous books, including Birlinn's definitive edition of Neil Munro's Para Handy and the Erchie stories. They also edited Echoes of the Sea: A Scottish Sea Anthology, Mungo's City: A Glasgow Anthology, Cradle of the Scots: An Argyll Anthology and Wicked Men and Fools: A Scottish Crime Anthology (all published by Birlinn). Brian Osborne has also written three biographies, including The Ingenious Mr Bell: A Life of Henry Bell. Brian lives in Kirkintilloch and Ronnie in Cardross.