Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 – 14 November 1916), better known by the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Saki and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes

macabre In works of art, the adjective macabre ( or ; ) means "having the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in natu ...

stories satirize

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

society and culture. He is considered by English teachers and scholars a master of the

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

and is often compared to O. Henry and

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. From a conflicted and unhap ...

. Influenced by

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

and

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

, he himself influenced

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as for children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winni ...

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...

and

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

. Besides his short stories (which were first published in newspapers, as was customary at the time, and then collected into several volumes), he wrote a full-length play, ''

The Watched Pot ''The Watched Pot'' (alternative title ''The Mistress of Briony'') is a romantic comedy play by Saki and Charles Maude published in 1924. The play, all three acts of which are set in the fictional English country house of Briony Manor, revolves ...

'', in collaboration with Charles Maude; two one-act plays; a historical study, ''The Rise of the Russian Empire'' (the only book published under his own name); a short novel, ''The Unbearable Bassington''; the episodic ''

The Westminster Alice ''The Westminster Alice'' is the name of a collection of vignettes written by Hector Hugh Munro (Saki) in 1902 and published by '' The Westminster Gazette'' of London. It is a political parody of Lewis Carroll's two books, ''Alice's Adventure ...

'' (a

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

parody of '' Alice in Wonderland''); and ''

When William Came ''When William Came: A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns'' is a novel written by the British author Saki (the pseudonym of Hector Hugh Munro) and published in November 1913. It is set several years in what was then the future, after a war b ...

'', subtitled ''A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns'', a fantasy about a future German invasion and occupation of Britain.

Life

Early life

Hector Hugh Munro was born in Akyab (now Sittwe), British Burma, which was then part of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. Saki was the son of Charles Augustus Munro, an Inspector General for the

Indian Imperial Police The Indian Imperial Police, referred to variously as the Imperial Police or simply the Indian Police or, by 1905, Imperial Police, was part of the Indian Police Services, the uniform system of police administration in British Raj, as established by ...

, and his wife, Mary Frances Mercer (1843–1872), the daughter of

Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...

Samuel Mercer. Her nephew Cecil William Mercer became a novelist under the name

Dornford Yates Cecil William Mercer (7 August 1885 – 5 March 1960), known by his pen name Dornford Yates, was an English writer and novelist whose novels and short stories, some humorous (the ''Berry'' books), some thrillers (the ''Chandos'' books), were be ...

. In 1872, on a home visit to England, Mary Munro was charged by a cow, and the shock caused her to miscarry. She never recovered and soon died. After his wife's death Charles Munro sent his three children, Ethel Mary (born April 1868), Charles Arthur (born July 1869) and two-year-old Hector, home to England. The children were sent to Broadgate Villa, in Pilton near

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...

, North Devon, to be raised by their grandmother and paternal maiden aunts, Charlotte and Augusta, in a strict and puritanical household. It is said that his aunts were most likely models for some of his characters, notably the aunt in "The Lumber Room" and the guardian in "Sredni Vashtar": Munro's sister Ethel said that the aunt in "The Lumber Room" was an almost perfect portrait of Aunt Augusta. Munro and his siblings led slightly insular lives during their early years and were educated by governesses. At the age of 12 the young Hector Munro was educated at Pencarwick School in

Exmouth Exmouth is a harbor, port town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and seaside resort, sited on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe and southeast of Exeter. In 2011 it had a population of 34,432, making Exmouth the List of town ...

and then as a boarder at Bedford School. In 1887, after his retirement, his father returned from Burma and embarked upon a series of European travels with Hector and his siblings. Hector followed his father in 1893 into the Indian Imperial Police and was posted to Burma, but successive bouts of fever caused his return home after only fifteen months.

Writing career

In 1896 he decided to move to London to make a living as a writer. Munro started his writing career as a journalist for newspapers such as ''

The Westminster Gazette ''The Westminster Gazette'' was an influential Liberal newspaper based in London. It was known for publishing sketches and short stories, including early works by Raymond Chandler, Anthony Hope, D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, and Saki, ...

'', the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'', ''

The Morning Post ''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''. History The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning Po ...

'', and magazines such as the '' Bystander'' and ''Outlook''. His first book, ''The Rise of the Russian Empire'', a historical study modelled upon

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, is k ...

's ''

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. It traces Western civilization (as well as the Islamic and Mongolian conquests) from the height of the Roman Empire to th ...

'', appeared in 1900, under his real name, but proved to be something of a false start. While writing ''The Rise of the Russian Empire'', he made his first foray into short story writing and published a piece called "Dogged" in ''St Paul's'' on February 18, 1899. (Munro's sketch "The Achievement of the Cat" appeared the day before in ''The Westminster Budget''.) He then moved into the world of political satire in 1900 with a collaboration with

Francis Carruthers Gould Sir Francis Carruthers Gould (2 December 1844 – 1925) was a British caricaturist and political cartoonist, born in Barnstaple, Devon. He published as F. Carruthers Gould and signed his cartoons FCG. Biography Gould was the son of Richard Da ...

entitled "Alice in Westminster". Gould produced the sketches, and Munro wrote the text accompanying them, using the pen name "Saki" for the first time. The series lampooned political figures of the day (''Alice in Downing Street'' begins with the memorable line, "'Have you ever seen an Ineptitude?'" – referring to a zoomorphised

Arthur Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As F ...

), and was published in the Liberal ''Westminster Gazette''. In 1902 he moved to ''The Morning Post'', described as one of the "organs of intransigence" by Stephen Koss, to work as a foreign correspondent, first in the Balkans, and then in Russia, where he was witness to the 1905 revolution in St. Petersburg. He then went on to Paris, before returning to London in 1908, where "the agreeable life of a man of letters with a brilliant reputation awaited him". In the intervening period ''Reginald'' had been published in 1904, the stories having first appeared in ''The Westminster Gazette'', and all this time he was writing sketches for ''The Morning Post'', the ''Bystander'' and ''The Westminster Gazette''. He kept a place in Mortimer Street, wrote, played bridge at the Cocoa Tree Club, and lived simply. ''Reginald in Russia'' appeared in 1910, ''The Chronicles of Clovis'' was published in 1911, and ''Beasts and Super-Beasts'' in 1914, along with other short stories that appeared in newspapers not published in collections in his lifetime. He also produced two novels, ''The Unbearable Bassington'' (1912) and ''When William Came'' (1913).

Death

At the start of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Munro was 43 and officially over-age to enlist, but he refused a commission and joined the 2nd King Edward's Horse as an ordinary trooper. He later transferred to the 22nd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, in which he was promoted to

lance sergeant Lance sergeant (LSgt or L/Sgt) is an appointment in the armies of the Commonwealth and formerly also a rank in the United States Army. Commonwealth Lance-sergeant in the armies of the Commonwealth was an appointment given to a corporal so they ...

. More than once he returned to the battlefield when officially too sick or injured. In November 1916 he was sheltering in a shell crater near

Beaumont-Hamel Beaumont-Hamel () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. During the First World War, Beaumont-Hamel was close to the front line, near many attacks, especially during the Battle of the Somme, one of the larg ...

, France, during the

Battle of the Ancre The Battle of the Ancre was fought by the British Fifth Army ( Lieutenant-General Hubert Gough), against the German 1st Army (General Fritz von Below). The Reserve Army had been renamed the Fifth Army on 30 October. The battle was the la ...

, when he was killed by a German

sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...

. According to several sources, his

last words Last words are the final utterances before death. The meaning is sometimes expanded to somewhat earlier utterances. Last words of famous or infamous people are sometimes recorded (although not always accurately) which became a historical and liter ...

were "Put that bloody cigarette out!"

Legacy

Munro has no known grave. He is commemorated on Pier and Face 8C 9A and 16A of the

Thiepval Memorial The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It is near the ...

. In 2003

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

marked Munro's flat at 97

Mortimer Street Mortimer Street is a street in the City of Westminster. It runs from the junction of Cavendish Place, Langham Place, and Regent Street in the west, to the junction of Cleveland Street, Goodge Street, and Newman Street in the east. It is join ...

, in

Fitzrovia Fitzrovia () is a district of central London, England, near the West End. The eastern part of area is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urban ...

with a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

. After his death, his sister Ethel

destroyed Destroyed may refer to: * ''Destroyed'' (Sloppy Seconds album), a 1989 album by Sloppy Seconds * ''Destroyed'' (Moby album), a 2011 album by Moby See also * Destruction (disambiguation) Destruction may refer to: Concepts * Destruktion, a ...

most of his papers and wrote her own account of their childhood, which appeared at the beginning of ''The Square Egg and Other Sketches'' (1924). Rothay Reynolds, a close friend, wrote a relatively lengthy memoir in ''The Toys of Peace'' (1919), but aside from this, the only other biographies of Munro are ''Saki: A Life of Hector Hugh Munro'' (1982) by A. J. Langguth, and ''The Unbearable Saki'' (2007) by Sandie Byrne. All later biographies have had to draw heavily upon Ethel's account of her brother's life. In late 2020 two Saki stories, "The Optimist" (1912) and "Mrs. Pendercoet's Lost Identity" (1911), which had never been republished, collected, or noted in any academic publication on Saki, were "rediscovered"; they are now available online. In 2021, Lora Sifurova, looking through the ''Morning Post'' and other London periodicals in Russian archives, "rediscovered" seven sketches and stories attributed to Munro or Saki.

Sexuality

Munro was

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

at a time when in Britain sexual activity between men was a crime. The

Cleveland Street scandal The Cleveland Street scandal occurred in 1889, when a homosexual male brothel and house of assignation on Cleveland Street, London, was discovered by police. The government was accused of covering up the scandal to protect the names of aristocra ...

(1889), followed by the downfall of Oscar Wilde (1895), meant "that side of unro'slife had to be secret".

Pen-name

The pen name "Saki" is a reference to the cupbearer in the '' Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam.'' Both Rothay Reynolds and Ethel Munro confirm this.

Emlyn Williams George Emlyn Williams, CBE (26 November 1905 – 25 September 1987) was a Welsh writer, dramatist and actor. Early life Williams was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family at 1 Jones Terrace, Pen-y-ffordd, Ffynnongroyw, Flints ...

states as much in his introduction to a Saki anthology published in 1978.

Selected works

Much of Saki's work contrasts the conventions and hypocrisies of Edwardian England with the ruthless but straightforward life-and-death struggles of nature. Writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' to mark the centenary of Saki's death, Stephen Moss noted, "In many of his stories, stuffy authority figures are set against forces of nature—polecats, hyenas, tigers. Even if they are not eaten, the humans rarely have the best of it".

"The Interlopers"

"The Interlopers" is a story about two men, Georg Znaeym and Ulrich von Gradwitz, whose families have fought over a forest in the eastern

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

for generations. Ulrich's family legally owns the land and so considers Georg an interloper when he hunts in the forest. But Georg, believing that the forest rightfully belongs to his family, hunts there often and believes that Ulrich is the real interloper for trying to stop him. One winter night, Ulrich catches Georg hunting in the forest. Neither man can shoot the other without warning, as they would soil their family's honour, so they hesitate to acknowledge one another. In an "act of God", a tree branch suddenly falls on each of them, trapping them both under a log. Gradually they realize the futility of their quarrel, become friends and end the feud. They then call out for their men's assistance and, after a brief period, Ulrich makes out nine or ten figures approaching over a hill. The story ends with Ulrich's realization that the approaching figures on the hill are actually hungry wolves. The wolves who hunt in packs as opposed to rivalries, it seems, are the true owners of the forest, while both humans are interlopers.

"Gabriel-Ernest"

"Gabriel-Ernest" starts with a warning: "There is a wild beast in your woods …" Gabriel, a naked boy sunbathing by the river, is "adopted" by well-meaning Townspeople. Lovely and charming, but also rather vague and distant, he seems bemused by his "benefactors." Asked how he managed by himself in the woods, he replies that he hunts "on four legs," which they take to mean that he has a dog. The climax comes when a small child disappears while walking home from Sunday school. A pursuit ensues, but Gabriel and the child disappear near a river. The only items found are Gabriel's clothes, and the two are never seen again. The story includes many of the author's favourite themes: good intentions gone awry, the banality of polite society, the attraction of the sinister, and the allure of the wild and the forbidden. There is also a recognition of basic decency, upheld when the story's protagonist 'flatly refuses' to subscribe to a Gabriel-Ernest memorial, for his supposedly gallant attempt to save a drowning child, and drowning himself, as well. Gabriel-Ernest was actually a

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...

who had eaten the child, then run off.

"The Schartz-Metterklume Method"

At a railway station an arrogant and overbearing woman, Mrs Quabarl, mistakes the mischievous Lady Carlotta, who has been inadvertently left behind by a train, for the

governess A governess is a largely obsolete term for a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching. In contrast to a nanny, th ...

, Miss Hope, whom she has been expecting, Miss Hope having erred about the date of her arrival. Lady Carlotta decides not to correct the mistake, acknowledges herself as Miss Hope, a proponent of "the Schartz-Metterklume method" of making children understand history by acting it out themselves, and chooses the

Rape of the Sabine Women The Rape of the Sabine Women ( ), also known as the Abduction of the Sabine Women or the Kidnapping of the Sabine Women, was an incident in Roman mythology in which the men of Rome committed a mass abduction of young women from the other cit ...

(exemplified by a washerwoman's two girls) as the first lesson. After creating chaos for two days, she departs, explaining that her delayed luggage will include a

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

cub.

"The Toys of Peace"

Preferring not to give her young sons toy soldiers or guns, and having taken away their toy depicting the Siege of Adrianople, Eleanor instructs her brother Harvey to give them innovative "peace toys" as an Easter present. When the packages are opened young Bertie shouts "It's a fort!" and is disappointed when his uncle replies "It's a municipal dustbin." The boys are initially baffled as to how to obtain any enjoyment from models of a school of art and a public library, or from little figures of

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...

Felicia Hemans Felicia Dorothea Hemans (25 September 1793 – 16 May 1835) was an English poet (who identified as Welsh by adoption). Two of her opening lines, "The boy stood on the burning deck" and "The stately homes of England", have acquired classic statu ...

and Sir

John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical wor ...

. Youthful inventiveness finds a way, however, as the boys combine their history lessons on Louis XIV with a lurid and violent play-story about the invasion of Britain and the storming of the

Young Women's Christian Association The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

. The end of the story has Harvey reporting failure to Eleanor, explaining "We have begun too late.", not realising he was doomed to failure whenever he had begun.

"The Open Window"

Framton Nuttel, a nervous man, has come to stay in the country for his health. His sister, who thinks he should socialise while he is there, has given him letters of introduction to families in the neighbourhood whom she got to know during her stay. Framton goes to visit Mrs. Sappleton and, while waiting for her to come down, is entertained by her witty, fifteen-year-old niece. The niece tells him that the French window is kept open, even though it is October, because Mrs. Sappleton believes that her husband and her brothers, who drowned in a bog three years before, will come back one day. When Mrs. Sappleton comes down she talks about her husband and her brothers, and how they are going to come back from shooting soon; Framton, believing that she is deranged, tries to distract her by explaining his health condition. Then, to his horror, Mrs. Sappleton points out that her husband and her brothers are coming, whom he sees walking towards the window with their dog. He thinks he is seeing ghosts and flees. Mrs. Sappleton cannot understand why he has run away and, at her husband and brothers' arrival, tells them about the odd man who has just left. The niece explains that Framton ran away because of the spaniel: he is afraid of dogs ever since he was hunted by a pack of stray dogs in India and had to spend a night in a newly dug grave with creatures grinning and foaming just above him. The last line summarizes the situation, saying of the niece, "Romance at short notice was her speciality."

"The Unrest-Cure"

Saki's recurring hero Clovis Sangrail, a clever, mischievous young man, overhears the complacent middle-aged Huddle complaining of his own addiction to routine and aversion to change. Huddle's friend makes the wry suggestion that he needs an "unrest-cure" (the opposite of a rest cure), to be performed, if possible, in the home. Clovis takes it upon himself to "help" the man and his sister by involving them in an invented outrage that will be a "blot on the twentieth century". Hector Hugh Munro

"Esmé"

A baroness tells Clovis a story about a hyena that she and her friend Constance encountered while out fox hunting. Later, the hyena follows them, stopping briefly to eat a gypsy child. Shortly after this, the hyena is killed by a motorcar. The baroness immediately claims the corpse as her beloved dog Esmé, and the guilty owner of the car gets his chauffeur to bury the animal and later sends her an emerald brooch to make up for her loss.

"Sredni Vashtar"

A sickly child named Conradin is raised by his aunt and guardian, Mrs De Ropp, who "would never... have confessed to herself that she disliked Conradin, though she might have been dimly aware that thwarting him 'for his good' was a duty which she did not find particularly irksome". Conradin rebels against his aunt and her choking authority. He invents a religion in which his polecat

ferret The ferret (''Mustela furo'') is a small, Domestication, domesticated species belonging to the family Mustelidae. The ferret is most likely a domesticated form of the wild European polecat (''Mustela putorius''), evidenced by their Hybrid (biol ...

is imagined as a vengeful deity, and Conradin prays that "Sredni Vashtar" will deliver retribution upon De Ropp. When De Ropp attempts to dispose of the animal, it attacks and kills her. The entire household is shocked and alarmed; Conradin calmly butters another piece of toast.

"Tobermory"

At a country-house party, one guest, Cornelius Appin, announces to the others that he has perfected a procedure for teaching animals human speech. He demonstrates this on his host's cat, Tobermory. Soon it is clear that animals are permitted to view and listen to many private things on the assumption that they will remain silent, such as the host Sir Wilfred's commentary on one guest's intelligence and the hope that she will buy his car, or the implied sexual activities of some of the other guests. The guests are angered, especially when Tobermory runs away to pursue a rival cat, but plans to poison him fail when Tobermory is instead killed by the rival cat. "An archangel ecstatically proclaiming the Millennium, and then finding that it clashed unpardonably with Henley and would have to be indefinitely postponed, could hardly have felt more crestfallen than Cornelius Appin at the reception of his wonderful achievement." Appin is killed shortly afterwards when attempting to teach an elephant in a zoo in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

to speak German. His fellow house party guest, Clovis Sangrail (Saki's recurring hero), remarks that if he was teaching "the poor beast" irregular German verbs, he deserved no pity.

"The Bull"

Tom Yorkfield, a farmer, receives a visit from his half-brother Laurence. Tom has no great liking for Laurence or respect for his profession as a painter of animals. Tom shows Laurence his prize bull and expects him to be impressed, but Laurence nonchalantly tells Tom that he has sold a painting of a different bull, which Tom has seen and does not like, for three hundred pounds. Tom is angry that a mere picture of a bull should be worth more than his real bull. This and Laurence's condescending attitude give him the urge to strike him. Laurence, running away across the field, is attacked by the bull, but is saved by Tom from serious injury. Tom, looking after Laurence as he recovers, feels no more rancour because he knows that, however valuable Laurence's painting might be, only a real bull like his can attack someone.

"The East Wing"

This is a "rediscovered" short story that was previously cited as a play. A house party is beset by a fire in the middle of the night in the east wing of the house. Begged by their hostess to save "my poor darling Eva—Eva of the golden hair," Lucien demurs, on the grounds that he has never even met her. It is only on discovering that Eva is not a flesh-and-blood daughter but Mrs Gramplain's painting of the daughter she wished that she had had, and which she has faithfully updated with the passing years, that Lucien declares a willingness to forfeit his life to rescue her, since "death in this case is more beautiful," a sentiment endorsed by the Major. As the two men disappear into the blaze, Mrs Gramplain recollects that she "sent Eva to Exeter to be cleaned". The two men have lost their lives for nothing.

Publications

* 1899 "Dogged" (short story, ascribed to H. H. M., in ''St. Paul's'', 18 February) * 1900 ''The Rise of the Russian Empire'' (history) * 1902 "The Woman Who Never Should" (political sketch in ''

'', 22 July) * 1902 ''The Not So Stories'' (political sketches in ''The Westminster Annual'') * 1902 ''

'' (political sketches with illustrations by F. Carruthers Gould) * 1904 ''Reginald'' (short stories) * 1910 ''Reginald in Russia'' (short stories) * 1912 ''The Chronicles of Clovis'' (short stories) * 1912 ''The Unbearable Bassington'' (novel) * 1913 ''

'' (novel) * 1914 '' Beasts and Super-Beasts'' (short stories, including "The Lumber-Room") * 1914 "The East Wing" (short story, in ''Lucas's Annual'' / ''Methuen's Annual'') ;Posthumous publications: * 1919 ''The Toys of Peace'' (short stories) * 1924 ''The Square Egg and Other Sketches'' (short stories) * 1924 ''

'' (play, co-authored with Charles Maude) * 1926–27 ''The Works of Saki'' (8 volumes) * 1930 ''The Complete Short Stories of Saki'' * 1933 ''The Complete Novels and Plays of Saki'' (including ''The Westminster Alice'') * 1934 ''The Miracle-Merchant'' (in ''One-Act Plays for Stage and Study 8'') * 1950 ''The Best of Saki'' (edited by

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

) * 1963 ''The Bodley Head Saki'' * 1976 ''The Complete Saki'' * 1976 ''Short Stories'' (edited by John Letts) * 1981 Six previously uncollected stories in ''Saki'', a biography by A. J. Langguth * 1988 ''Saki: The Complete Saki'' * 1995 ''The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope, and Other Stories'' * 2006 ''A Shot in the Dark'' (a compilation of 15 uncollected stories) * 2010 ''Improper Stories'',

Daunt Books Daunt Books is a chain of bookshops in England, founded in 1990 by James Daunt. It originally specialised in travel books. In 2010, it began publishing. James Daunt later became CEO of Waterstones and the US bookstore chain Barnes & Noble. Bo ...

(18 short stories) * 2016 ''Alice Wants to Know'' (limited edition reprint of the final instalment of ''

'', originally published in ''Picture Politics'', but not included in the collected edition).

Radio

The 5th broadcast of

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

' series for

CBS Radio CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...

, ''

The Mercury Theatre on the Air ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' is a radio series of live radio dramas created and hosted by Orson Welles. The weekly hour-long show presented classic literary works performed by Welles's celebrated Mercury Theatre repertory company, with mus ...

'', from 8 August 1938, dramatizes three short stories rather than one long story. The second of the three stories is "The Open Window." "The Open Window" is also adapted (by John Allen) in the 1962

Golden Records Golden Records was a Simon & Schuster record label based in New York City. It was conceived and founded in 1948 by the Grammy Award-winning children's music producer, Arthur Shimkin, then a new recruit in the S&S business department. Shimkin ...

release ''

Alfred Hitchcock Presents ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, aired on CBS and NBC between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965 it was ren ...

: Ghost Stories for Young People'', a record album of six ghost stories for children.

Television

A dramatisation of "The Schartz-Metterklume Method" was an episode in the series ''

'' in 1960. ''Saki: The Improper Stories of H. H. Munro'' (a reference to the ending of "The Story Teller") was an eight-part series produced by

Philip Mackie Philip Mackie (26 November 1918 – 23 December 1985) was a British film and television screenwriter. He was born in Salford in Lancashire, England. He graduated in 1939 from University College London and worked for the Ministry of Informat ...

for

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

in 1962. Actors involved included Mark Burns as Clovis,

Fenella Fielding Fenella Fielding, OBE (born Fenella Marion Feldman; 17 November 1927 – 11 September 2018) was an English stage, film and television actress who rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, and was often referred to as "England's first lad ...

as Mary Drakmanton,

Heather Chasen Heather Jean Chasen (20 July 1927 – 22 May 2020) was an English actress, known for her roles in soap operas; playing Valerie Pollard in the ITV soap opera, '' Crossroads'', from 1982 to 1986 and guest roles in '' Doctors'', '' Holby ...

as Agnes Huddle,

Richard Vernon Richard Evelyn Vernon (7 March 1925 – 4 December 1997) was a British actor. He appeared in many feature films and television programmes, often in aristocratic or supercilious roles. Prematurely balding and greying, Vernon settled into playi ...

as the Major,

Rosamund Greenwood Rosamund Mary Greenwood (12 June 1907 – 15 July 1997) was a British actress who was active on screen from 1935 until 1990. Biography After training at London's Central School, she was on stage from the late 1920s. Her theatre work included st ...

as Veronique and

Martita Hunt Martita Edith Hunt (30 January 190013 June 1969) was an Argentine-born British theatre and film actress. She had a dominant stage presence and played a wide range of powerful characters. She is best remembered for her performance as Miss Havi ...

as Lady Bastable. A dramatisation of "The Open Window" was an episode in the series '' Tales of the Unexpected'' in 1984. The same story was also adapted as "Ek Khula Hua Darwaza" by

Shyam Benegal Shyam Benegal (born 14 December 1934) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as the pioneer of parallel cinema, he is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. He has received ...

as an episode in the 1986 Indian anthology television series ''

Katha Sagar Katha Sagar (translation:''"A Sea of Stories"'') is an Indian television series that aired on DD National in 1986. The series featured a collection of stories by writers from around the world, including Katherine Mansfield, Guy De Maupassant, Le ...

'', which also included the episode "Saboon Ki Tikiya" an adaptation of Munro's "Dusk" by Benegal. ''Who Killed Mrs De Ropp?'', a

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...