My next Saki audiobook podcast, The Toys of Peace, is available now. Visit http://corvidae.co.uk/saki/ or subscribe on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/toys-peace-other-papers-by/id894688644

‘… he proceeded with violent haste to extricate himself partially and the mouse entirely from the surrounding casings of tweed and half-wool.’

‘“We can’t wait indefinitely for one of the children to take after a doubtfully depraved great aunt.”’

‘To be beyond reproach was one thing, but it would have been nicer to have been nearer to the Park.’

‘Rollo faced the company with a smile that he imagined the better sort of aristocrat would have worn when mounting to the guillotine.’

‘Major Pallaby was a victim of circumstances, over which he had no control, and of his temper, over which he had very little.’

‘Laploshka was one of the meanest men I have ever met, and quite one of the most entertaining.’

‘The goblin was too well bred to wink; besides, being a stone goblin, it was out of the question.’

‘“Flesh,” said the boy, and he pronounced the word with slow relish…’

“And Judkin was even as these others; the wine had been suddenly spilt from his cup of life...”