Home|How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen
This page lists all the content on this site tagged as relevant to the above Russell Hoban work, such as news articles, links to external sites and pages giving information about the work. Click on the title of an item to see the full content.
How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen
Submitted by Richard Cooper on 11 May, 2016 - 07:59
Michael Dirda's round-up of the best American fiction in this article dated 1 June 1997 names Russell Hoban: 'at his best he is the finest all-round writer in the world: author of brilliant picture books (about Frances the Badger and Captain Najork); of a wistful, Beckett-like parable for middle readers, The Mouse and His Child; and of the inspired Riddley Walker, a post-nuclear holocaust Huckleberry Finn, told in fractured English, largely about spiritual regeneration. Like this last's youthful hero, Hoban remains at heart a "connection man," looking for meaning beneath the surfaces of life.'
Submitted by Richard Cooper on 26 April, 2015 - 13:02
Short, undated video (2010s?) in which Sir Quentin Blake talks about his first collaboration with Russell Hoban on "How Tom Beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen" and its sequel, "A Near Thing for Captain Najork".
Quentin Blake, who illustrated several of Russell Hoban's books including the recent Rosie's Magic Horse, has been recognised with a knighthood in the New Year's Honours list.
Tom is so good at fooling around that he does little else. His Aunt Fidget Wonkham-Strong, who thinks this is too much like having fun, calls upon the fearsome Captain Najork and his hired sportsmen to teach him a lesson. So the Captain challenges Tom to three rounds womble, muck, and sneedball, certain that he will win. However, when it comes to fooling around, Tom doesn't fool around, and his skills prove so polished that the results of the contest are completely unexpected...