Para Handy: The Complete Collected Stories

Name: Para Handy: The Complete Collected Stories
Price: 17.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.5 (344 reviews)
Author: Neil Munro

by Neil Munro

Historical Fiction Literary Fiction

4.5 (344)

4.5 stars from 344 reviews

644 pages~10.7 hr readPublished by Birlinn

$17.99At peak price

Last checked: Dec 29, 2025

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Price history: $1.99 – $17.99

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Perfect for you if...

You love historical fiction that captures the texture of everyday life rather than grand events, with characters who feel like old friends.
You're drawn to stories with strong regional flavour and dialect that brings a specific time and place vividly to life.
You appreciate episodic narratives where you can dip in and out, perfect for returning to favourite characters across multiple tales.

Maybe not for you if...

You prefer fast-paced plots with high stakes and dramatic arcs rather than gentle, character-driven humour.
You find Scottish dialect difficult to parse or find it off-putting when it dominates the prose.
You're looking for complex female characters, as this is an early 20th-century collection centred entirely on a male crew.

About this book

A collection of short stories featuring Para Handy, a Scottish seaman, and his crew. Master mariner Para Handy, also known as Peter Macfarlane, first appeared in the Glasgow Evening News in 1905. He sails with his crew—Dougie the mate, Macphail the Engineer, Sunny Jim, and the Tar—between West Highland ports and Glasgow, depicting life during an earlier era of puffer steamships. This edition includes all three collections of short stories published during the author's lifetime, unpublished stories, and a story discovered in 2001. Each story is accompanied by extensive notes explaining colloquialisms, place-names, and historical events. The volume also features contemporary photographs of harbors, steamers, and puffers from the period, including images of the Vital Spark.

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Price History

Kindle price over time. Green zones = periods when the book was free.

$1.99 – $17.99

Price has dropped 32 times over the last 5 years. Goes on sale roughly every 49 days.

Sales Rank

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Currently around #1,434K in the Kindle store — a niche title. Sales have softened 28% recently.

Rating & Reviews

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Currently 4.5★ from 344 reviews

Gaining approximately 2 new reviews per month. Rating has remained stable at 4.5 over the tracking period.

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Based on past patterns, a price drop could happen soon. It typically goes on sale every 49 days and the last drop was 163 days ago. Typical discount: 89% off.

Prices shown in USD from Amazon US. We continuously pull new data to improve tracking. If dates look old, it usually means there has been no significant change since the last data point.