How Tom beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen

Some reviews:

Captain Najork has been a favourite in our house since my 16 year old son Tom enjoyed 'fooling around'. It is one of the funniest children's books ever and if you enjoy a bit of quirkiness in the style of Quentin Blake then this book is for you. Parts of this book have become standard conversation in our house, 'eat your mutton and your cabbage and potato sog'and 'She fancies you, I can tell by the way she looks sideways from underneath her iron hat.'
Having lost our copy several years ago, we were so pleased to buy this and share it with Martha aged 4 and laugh over and over again.
Wonderful.

If you want a David and Goliath story about the triumph of a lad with laid-back play skills over a quasi-military villain with his disciplined team of competitors, this one is for you. Tom totally befuddles Captain Najork and his team of sportsmen and, into the bargain, marries off his steely maiden aunt with her Iron Hat and gains a sweet, collegial replacement whom he hires. I read it to my kids a zillion years ago and it never palls even now. Magnificent and heart warming. 

The first time our family set eyes on this book was when we borrowed it from our mobile library. It became a classic when the kids were young, and we went on the borrow it a number of times. Phrases from it became part of our everyday language, such as lets do some "high up fooling around and low down fooling around", lets play "womble, muck, and sneedball", and I think I'll go and "learn the nautical almanac". When our younger son reached 18 years of age we decided to buy him a copy as a joke present. We wrapped it and presented it to him at our local pub where we were having a celebratory drink on his birthday. It was a present to be savoured. We ended up having a ceremonial reading, much to our great amusement. All the other customers wondered what all the laughter was about. Had they known they would have been as hysterical as we were. Whenever the family recalls great examples of children's books this is always at the top of the list. Its a cracking read for grown ups as well. I defy anybody not to laugh. We still have the book and still refer to it.