Neil Munro (writer)

Neil Munro (1863 – 1930) was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author and literary critic. He was born in Inveraray, the illegitimate son of a kitchen maid, census records indicate that he may have been brought up by an aunt. As a young man he moved to Glasgow and worked as a journalist on various newspapers.

He was basically a serious writer, but is now mainly known for his humorous short stories, originally written under the pen name of 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 travelling drapery salesman Jimmy Swan. They were originally published in Glasgow newspapers, but collections of them 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.

Munro published several novels under his own name. Initially he had some success writing historical novels, most of them with a Highland setting exploring the coming of change in the comparatively recent past. These include John Splendid, set around the time of Montrose's campaign in the First Civil War, and Doom Castle. Later he attempted to expand his range with more mixed success. He returned to a Highland historical setting with the last and the best of his novels, The New Road (later dramatised by the BBC). He did not write any further novels, possibly concentrating on his journalism, and possibly affected by poor health and the death of his son Hugh in the First World War.

His obituaries commonly claimed him to be the successor of Robert Louis Stevenson, and at his memorial service at Glasgow Cathedral, the noted critic Lauchlan MacLean Watt described Munro as "the greatest Scottish novelist since Sir Walter Scott". However, after his death his serious novels faded from view (with the partial exception of The New Road) and he became mainly remembered as the creator of Para Handy. This process of revising the importance of Munro's work was accelerated by Hugh MacDiarmid becoming 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.