Saki

I've started reading my Everyman's Pocket Classics "Christmas Stories" and have discovered a wonderful author who writes under the pen name, Saki. His legal name is Hector Hugh Munro and he was born in Burma in 1870. The wit and satire with which Saki writes reminds me of EM Delafield, only a bit more stabbing. I found myself imagining the two of them having dinner together and what the dialogue would be like. In my short story "Reginald's Christmas Revel" he writes: When a man goes out in the pouring rain to brush caterpillars off rose trees, I generally imagine his life indoors leaves something to be desired; anyway, it must be very unsettling for the caterpillars. I laughed my way through this all too short story and knew right away that I'd be adding more Saki to my collection. In reading his bio I was saddened to learn that his life was not all frivolity and light and that he died before his time at 43. Killed by a German sniper during the first World War he was over the age to enlist but volunteered regardless. Thankfully, he left behind quite a legacy of literature - I can hear my bookshelves groaning!