MP3 Audios - Biography

Set somewhere in outport Newfoundland in the 1890's, written and first performed in the mid 1980's by Frank Holden, Judge Prowse Presiding brings a vital character and a near-forgotten frontier world back to life.

Daniel Woodley Prowse (1834-1914), police magistrate, journalist, sportsman, historian and champion of the common man, was a "cross between Dr Samuel Johnson and Falstaff." As he rails at both plaintiffs and felons in his jokes and yarns he revives the excitement and the agonies of his time.

“It's title may be dry, but Frank Holden's one-man play is as colorful as can be, an absolute delight with no small measure of wit and a tour-de-force performance.” Times Colonist, Victorica, B.C.

“A transfixing performance – simply enthralling.” Edmonton Journal

Born in Port de Grave, Newfoundland in 1834 Judge D.W. Prowse is best known as the author of A History of Newfoundland, first published in 1895. A History of Newfoundland is widely hailed as one of the finest histories written about Newfoundland and Labrador.

The song and melody "Greedy Harbour, " performed by Frank Holden, words and air composed by Jack Maher and Stephen Mullins, 1929, (Greenleaf's " Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland," Harvard University Press, 1933, page 256, Lib of Congress card catalogue # 68:20767).


Audio Book Reviews:

From AudioFile Magazine:

Frank Holden created a one-act play in 1989 about Judge Prowse, a larger-than-life Newfoundland character from the late 1800s. Holden now adapts and performs that play in a lovely audio production that is both humorous and respectful. The Judge decides local cases with common sense while intermittently regaling his court with alternately ribald and tragic stories. He is also famous for having written A HISTORY OF NEWFOUNDLAND and self-publishing it in 1895. Those dissatisfied with it could give him the unused part of the book back, and he'd give the unused part of their money back. Holden's strong and appealing Canadian accent booms and blusters, matching the archived photograph of the long-bearded fellow on the front cover. A.B.