The Complete Short Stories

Saki is perhaps the most graceful spokesman for England's 'Golden Afternoon' - the slow and peaceful years before the First World War. Although, like so many of his generation, he died tragically young, in action on the Western Front, his reputation as a writer continued to grow long after his death. The stories are humorous, satiric, supernatural, and macabre, highly individual, full of eccentric wit and unconventional situations. With his great gift as a social satirist of his contemporaryupper-class Edwardian world, Saki is one of the few undisputed English masters of the short story.

Born H H Munro in Burma in 1870, Saki was educated in England and returned to Burma to join the police force in 1893. Returning to London in 1896, he worked for the Westminster Gazette and was Balkans correspondent for the Morning Post from 1902. He was killed on the Western Front during World War 1, having volunteered for active service despite being over 40.