{"product_id":"2940013757950","title":"The Flying Yorkshireman And nine other stories about Sam Small","description":"This saga of the life and times of Sam Small and his mates was mostly\u003cbr\u003ewritten when the world was a happier place. Bits of it were published in\u003cbr\u003ebig and little magazines in England, the United States, Canada, and\u003cbr\u003eAustralia. These bits were written--or rather they made themselves up--at\u003cbr\u003evarious times and places; mostly when I was very homesick or feeling low\u003cbr\u003eor hopeless and wanted to cheer myself up.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen a man has little else to rely on, I think he falls back on his blood\u003cbr\u003eand background. And so, curiously enough, nearly all of these stories\u003cbr\u003ewere written five and six thousand miles away from my native Yorkshire.\u003cbr\u003eIt was mostly being homesick, I think.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI like to feel that these stories are original with me, but to be\u003cbr\u003etruthful they were created by my blood and background. For they are just\u003cbr\u003ethe same kind of stories that Yorkshire people have made up to tell for\u003cbr\u003ewho knows how many generations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Yorkshire people, as you may gather from these tales, are a very\u003cbr\u003ewonderful lot. (So are Texans and Nova Scotians and so on--but I'm\u003cbr\u003eYorkshire.) Yorkshire people are truly full of fine, strong virtues. Life\u003cbr\u003eis often hard for them, so they cling to those virtues--courage,\u003cbr\u003epatience, truth, sticking it out as best you may--and they pass them on\u003cbr\u003eto their children by example and precept--and by story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I was young they told me a lot of stories about Sam Small. He was\u003cbr\u003efabulous--the epitome of all that was Yorkshire. He was a folk tale.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou may notice that Sam's character is quite flexible. Sometimes he is\u003cbr\u003ejust an ordinary mortal, limited by human abilities--and then suddenly\u003cbr\u003esometimes he seems godlike, like a dream come true. Don't let that worry\u003cbr\u003eyou. Fiction is just dreaming out loud, that's all. Tangle-wood Tales,\u003cbr\u003eJohn Henry, Paul Bunyan, Superman, Sam Small--they're all the\u003cbr\u003esubconscious desire of man to be nearer the angels. And Sam could do\u003cbr\u003eanything in my childhood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne day I had my first bad toothache. (We didn't go to a dentist, I don't\u003cbr\u003ethink there was one for miles around. ) My aunt said: \"We'll rub it with\u003cbr\u003ea bit o' laudanum, lad--and if tha just bides patient it'll go away.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile I bided, she told me the story about Sam Small training his\u003cbr\u003efrightened pup--trying to make it into a real, fighting Yorkshire kind of\u003cbr\u003edog. He teased it so much that in desperation it bit his nose one night,\u003cbr\u003eand what is more, it held on. His friend, hearing the row, came in, and\u003cbr\u003eSam roared for him to pry the dog loose.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Nay, Sam,\" said the friend. \"Bide it, lad, for it'll be t' makin' o' t'\u003cbr\u003epup.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou might try this story on yourself as alleviation for your next\u003cbr\u003etoothache. But it's the Yorkshire way, a typical example: biding what\u003cbr\u003efate brings in undying faith that if you stick it out, there'll be better\u003cbr\u003etimes to come.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI suppose it was all that, the ineradicable influences during childhood,\u003cbr\u003ethat made up these stories. Wherever I was--under palms and blue-gum\u003cbr\u003etrees in California, or looking down on the Hudson Valley where the\u003cbr\u003ethunderstorms come booming along, or cooped up in some apartment in a\u003cbr\u003ecity, or farming in the red hills of Pennsylvania--these stories would\u003cbr\u003eevolve and I'd hang them on Sam Small.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145903096048,"sku":"2940013757950","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013757950_p0.jpg?v=1763589877","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013757950","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}