Neil Munro (Hugh Foulis)
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Neil Munro (3 June 1863 – 22 December 1930)Brian Osborne and Ronald Armstrong, Introduction to "Para Handy: The Complete Edition" 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. The best known of these stories are about the fictional Clyde puffer the '' Vital Spark'' and her captain Para Handy, but they also include stories about the waiter and kirk beadle Erchie MacPherson and the travelling drapery salesman Jimmy Swan. They were originally published in the ''
Glasgow Evening News The ''Glasgow Evening News'' was an important Scottish newspaper in the early 20th century. It was founded as the ''Glasgow Evening Post'' in 1866 and became the ''Evening News'' in 1915. Neil Munro was editor for a time and his Para Handy ...
'', but collections were published as books. A key figure in Scottish literary circles, Munro was a friend of the writers J. M. Barrie,
John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career ...
, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham and
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, and the artists
Edward A. Hornel Edward Atkinson Hornel (17 July 1864 – 1933) was a Scottish painter of landscapes, flowers, and foliage, with children. He was a cousin of James Hornell. His contemporaries in the Glasgow Boys called him Ned Hornel. Biography Hornel was born ...
, George Houston,
Pittendrigh MacGillivray James Pittendrigh MacGillivray (1856 – 29 April 1938) was a Scottish sculptor. He was also a keen artist, musician and poet. He was born in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, the son of a sculptor, and studied under William Brodie and John Mossman ...
and
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. He was an early promoter of the works of both Conrad and Rudyard Kipling.


Life

Munro was born in Inveraray, the illegitimate son of Ann Munro, a kitchen maid. His death certificate gives his father's name as James Thompson Munro. He was brought up by his maternal grandparents and an aunt. He attended Glencaddie Primary School and Church Square Public School, leaving at 14. For five years he worked in the office of the Sheriff Clerk of Argyll, a fairly prestigious post that has led to speculation that he may have had undisclosed family connections. He then moved to Glasgow and worked briefly in the cashier's office in an ironmonger's shop in the Trongate before working as a journalist on the '' Greenock Advertiser'', the '' Glasgow News'', the ''
Falkirk Herald ''The Falkirk Herald'' is a weekly newspaper and daily news website published by National World. It provides reportage, opinion and analysis of news, current affairs and sport in the towns of Falkirk, Grangemouth, Larbert, Stenhousemuir and ...
'' and the ''
Glasgow Evening News The ''Glasgow Evening News'' was an important Scottish newspaper in the early 20th century. It was founded as the ''Glasgow Evening Post'' in 1866 and became the ''Evening News'' in 1915. Neil Munro was editor for a time and his Para Handy ...
''. He semi-retired from journalism in 1902 to concentrate on other writing, but returned in 1914 and became editor of the ''Glasgow Evening News'' in 1918. Munro published several novels under his own name. Initially he had some success writing historical novels, most of them set in the Highlands and exploring the coming of change in the comparatively recent past. His best-known novels from this phase of his writing career are ''John Splendid'', set around Montrose's campaign in the First Civil War and his attack on Inveraray, and ''Doom Castle'', set around the Jacobite rising of 1745, which was dramatised by the BBC in 1980. Later he attempted to expand his range, with more mixed success, writing novels with contemporary settings, including ''The Daft Days''. In 1914 he returned to a Highland historical setting with the last and best-known of his novels, '' The New Road'', dramatised by the BBC in 1973. He then concentrated on journalism again, but his work was affected by his poor health and the death of his son Hugh in the First World War. In October 1930 he received an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh. He died in Craigendoran, Helensburgh, on 22 December 1930 at age 67. A private funeral was held in Inverary and a memorial service held at Glasgow Cathedral. John Buchan subsequently edited ''The Poetry of Neil Munro'', published in 1931. Obituaries for Munro commonly described him as the successor of Robert Louis Stevenson, and at his memorial service in Glasgow Cathedral the critic
Lauchlan MacLean Watt Lauchlan MacLean Watt FRSE (24 October 1867 – 11 September 1957) was the minister of Glasgow Cathedral from 1923–34, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1933. He was a published poet and author, a ...
described Munro as "the greatest Scottish novelist since Sir Walter Scott". After his death his serious novels faded from view, with the partial exception of ''The New Road'', and he came to be remembered primarily as the creator of Para Handy. This change in Munro's reputation was accelerated by
Hugh MacDiarmid Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid (), was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces behind the Scottish Rena ...
, who became a detractor of Munro's style. There was a minor revival of interest in him around the turn of the 21st century, including the publication of annotated versions of the Para Handy stories with some stories not previously published in book form.


References


External links


BBC - Writing Scotland - Tartan Myths - Neil Munro
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on him and his historical fiction * {{DEFAULTSORT:Munro, Neil 1863 births 1930 deaths Scottish novelists Scottish journalists Scottish newspaper editors Scottish columnists People from Inveraray Scottish short story writers Scottish historical novelists Scottish businesspeople Scottish Renaissance Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period