Category Archives: Links

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Saki Stories on BBC Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra

A new reading/adaption of ‘Tobermory’ has been posted on the BBC website. It can be found here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p074m5yg

There are five other Saki short stories currently available on their website too. The link for these is:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qdqd2/episodes/guide

and the stories are the following:

  1. ‘The Open Window’
  2. ‘The Toys of Peace’
  3. ‘Fur’
  4. ‘The Schartz-Metterklume Method’
  5. ‘The Lumber Room’

These five were broadcast on BBC Radio  Extra, which is often used to repeat material; in this case it’s not clear whether these are new recordings or whether they have been previously broadcast.

Finally, Saki is discussed in BBC Radio 4’s ‘Open book’ programme about 20 minutes in:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0088mxm

The programmes are also available via the BBC iplayer app and its successor/replacement, the fairly stupidly named “BBC Sounds”. Some BBC content is, unfortunately, only available within the UK. (Being in Germany, I couldn’t access the ‘Tobermory’ reading.)

Many thanks to Rob MacGregor for the links.

‘Where the Wild Things Are’

Christopher Hitchens’ 2008 review of [amazon_textlink asin=’0199226059′ text=’Sandie Byrne’s The Unbearable Saki‘ template=’ProductLink’ store=’irishistcomp-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’9d8453b5-dc0d-11e7-bc94-334d54a39218′] is in fact more of an essay on his admiration for Saki’s short stories.

Go and get an edition of this Edwardian master of the short story. Begin with, say, “Sredni Vashtar” or “The Lumber-Room” or “The Open Window.” Then see whether you can put the book down.

You can read the whole article here.

‘Ferrets can be gods’: LRB review of Gabriel-Ernest and Other Tales

The London Review of Books website has a review by Katherine Rundell of Alma Classics’ Gabriel-Ernest and Other Tales. The review was originally printed in the LRB’s 11 August 2016 issue. It’s particularly interesting for its discussion of the influence of Saki on Roald Dahl, and contains the wonderful line “[Saki’s] children are nasty, brutsh and short”, which is worthy of the man himself.

The direct URL is:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n16/katherine-rundell/ferrets-can-be-gods

The LRB website has a paywall but you can access one article for free or register free for 24 hours of access.

 

In the Lumber Room with Saki

BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast a three-hour programme on Saki to mark the 100th anniversary of his death. Here’s the description from the BBC website:

Back in 1916 on the battlefield of the Somme, a German sniper brought to an end the life of perhaps Britain’s greatest short-story writer.

Hector Hugh Munro was a political sketch-writer, foreign correspondent, historian and novelist. But he is best known under the pen name Saki for his short story writing.

Saki’s dark and twisted tales make delicious radio drama. Many of them centre on childish mishief, small acts of rebellion against pretentious or overbearing authority figures, and supernatural beasts.

The stories draw on the author’s upbringing in North Devon, where Saki was raised by his aunts and grandmother.

Shaun Ley, who also grew up in Devon, returns to Saki’s childhood home to explore the environment that made the author.

In this three-hour programme, Shaun brings together a series of adaptations, including The Lumber Room, The Toys of Peace, The She-Wolf, The Schartz-Metterklume Method, Mrs Packeltide’s Tiger, The Open Window and Sredni Vashtar.

Contributors include: Sir Richard Eyre, Will Self and Dr Sandie Byrne.

Producer: Adam Bowen for BBC News – Westminster.

The programme can be accessed online for a month at the BBC website. Click here.