|
Myers Literary Guide:
|
The North-East
|
|
CHARLES JOHN CUTCLIFFE WRIGHT HYNE (1865 - 1944) As C.J. Cutcliffe-Hyne he became a prolific author of adventure, detective and science fiction stories, as famous in his day as Conan Doyle, both in Britain and America. Born in Gloucestershire, Hyne moved to Bradford with his father in 1868. After Cambridge, he became a hack writer in London, among much else penning a column of advice to the lovelorn as Aunt Ermyntrude. A life of adventure followed, as Hyne worked as winch-man and barber on a North Sea whaler, then as a doctor on a New Orleans tramp steamer. He also sailed up the Congo and walked across Lapland. It has been suggested that Hyne's Congo journeys influenced Joseph Conrad (q.v.) when writing his great novella Heart of Darkness. Hyne's hugely popular Captain Kettle series introduces a fiery Welsh captain, who takes on a series of rogues and miscreants in a series of exploits which span the world. Owen Kettle is a fist-swinging unpredictable pugnacious individualist who has a contempt for whingers and weaklings, and a belief in hard work and the beneficial effects of graduation from the school of hard knocks. Always on his beam ends and a victim of constant bad luck, Kettle solaces himself with some awful nature poetry. He is capable of roguery ('At sea I do as I have to do') when he sees material advancement, but remains a patriot and a faithful husband. In South Shields he frequents the Captain's Room at Hallett's and the ships in the Tyne (smelly, coaly and filthy), while his dubious exploits at sea (he is a paragon ashore) are a weight on his conscience as he thinks of his chapel preacher in Shields.
|
|