W. W. Jacobs 
Ship’s Company, The Entire Collection 

This is a collection of short stories, set in the south of England, some time in the early years of the twentieth century. The dialogue is great – WW Jacobs brings his characters to life through the way that they speak to each other. Many of these characters are unpretentious working people, and the humour in the stories is the description of how they try and play tricks on one another or take advantage of one another, and whether or not they succeed and how. (Goodreads)