W W Jacobs

W. W. Jacobs (1863 - 1943) was an English short story writer & novelist. He mainly wrote stories about sailors and the marine life. Humour was his favoured genre. Sailor's Knots was published in 1909. This collection includes twelve short stories, Deserted, Homeward Bound, Self-help, Sentence Deferred, Matrimonial Openings, Odd Man Out, The Toll-House, Peter's Pence, The Head of the Family, Prize Money, Double Dealing and Keeping Up Appearances. Most of the stories in Sailor's Knots feature accounts of the village life, sailors and life at the sea.

W.W. Jacobs was an English writer, famous for his humorous short stories, particularly those relating the preposterous adventures and misadventures of sailors on leave. This collection, Short Cruises, contains some of W.W. Jacobs' most popular characters, including the night watchman at the docks in Wapping who relates the stories of his friends Ginger Dick, Sam Small, and Peter Russet.

"What I want you to do," said Mr. George Wright, as he leaned towards the old sailor, "is to be an uncle to me." "Aye, aye," said the mystified Mr. Kemp, pausing with a mug of beer midway to his lips.

The Toll-House has a long and terrible history as a place of death. But Jack Barnes doesn't believe in spirits. His travelling companions, Messrs. Meagle, Lester, and White, wager that he might be convinced otherwise if they all spend a night together in the house. Four men go in, but will four come out?W. W. Jacobs was an English author, well-known for his story "The Monkey's Paw."

Without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnam Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire.

Every sailorman grumbles about the sea, said the night-watchman, thoughtfully. It's human nature to grumble, and I s'pose they keep on grumbling and sticking to it because there ain't much else they can do. There's not many shore-going berths that a sailorman is fit for, and those that they are-such as a night-watchman's, for instance-wants such a good character that there's few as are to equal it. Sometimes they get things to do ashore. I knew one man that took up butchering, and 'e did very well at it till the police took him up.

"Handsome is as 'andsome does," said the night-watchman. It's an old saying, but it's true. Give a chap good looks, and it's precious little else that is given to 'im. He's lucky when 'is good looks 'ave gorn-or partly gorn-to get a berth as night-watchman or some other hard and bad-paid job.