The Cheerful Captain
ee ee tom ee ee i. i PF Pear STATION 3ZB’s Spin a Yarn, Sailor, is a lucky find for me, since I had not noticed The Listerier article on Captain Billy Howse. Even although the end of the Captain’s stories can often be guessed, there is art and humour to the telling that sets one rocking on the castors. Many of the Captain’s ways of saying things may belong to a naval idiom, but to a mere landlubber it is amusing to hear, for example, that a man wasn’t two-faced otherwise he wouldn’t have worn the one he did. Of course, there is an added gusto in the Captain’s West Country (?) speech rhythms which end each phrase and sentence like ringing iron. All this being so, and the Captain being such a good story-teller, we are prepared to forgive him for not recognising "Horse Face’s" voice, thus leaving his hapless superior locked up as an
enemy spy until morning, by which tinie his voice no doubt matched his nickname. In this way the story is allowed to reach its riotous denouement. Despite continual frustration the Captain doesn’t sound as if he suffered from an infer-
iority complex,
Westcliff
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19531211.2.18.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 752, 11 December 1953, Page 10
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202The Cheerful Captain New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 752, 11 December 1953, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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