“There must, by the way, be one considerable advantage in being a child in a war–zone village; no one can attempt to teach it tidiness. The wearisome maxim, ‘A place for everything and everything in its proper place,’ can never be insisted on when a considerable part of the roof is lying in the backyard, when a bedstead from a neighbour’s demolished bedroom is half buried in the beetroot pile, and the chickens are roosting in a derelict meat–safe because a shell has removed the top and sides and front of the chicken–house.”
― ‘The Square Egg’
Quotes
“Other people’s dreams…”
“Other people’s dreams are about as universally interesting as accounts of other people’s gardens, or chickens, or children.”
― ‘A Bread and Butter Miss’
“his socks…”
“his socks compelled one’s attention without losing one’s respect.”
― ‘Ministers of Grace’
“By insisting on having your bottle pointing to the north…”
“By insisting on having your bottle pointing to the north when the cork is being drawn, and calling the waiter Max, you may induce an impression on your guests which hours of laboured boasting might be powerless to achieve. For this purpose, however, the guests must be chosen as carefully as the wine.”
― ‘The Chaplet’
Roald Dahl on Saki
“In all literature, he was the first to employ successfully a wildly outrageous premise in order to make a serious point. I love that. And today the best of his stories are still better than the best of just about every other writer around.”
― Roald Dahl on Saki,
original source unknown (can anyone help?)
“I regard one’s hair…”
“I regard one’s hair as I regard husbands: as long as one is seen together in public one’s private divergences don’t matter.”
― ‘The Secret Sin Of Septimus Brope’
A new book contains a reference to “Saki (Mr. Neil Munro)”…
Literary notes and news
A new book contains a reference to “Saki (Mr. Neil Munro).” As our readers are well aware, “Saki” was the pen-name of Mr. Hector Munro. He was not related to Mr. Neil Munro, the Scottish novelist.
Westminster Gazette, 26 March 1917, p. 2
“I’m always having depressing experiences…”
“‘I’m always having depressing experiences,’ said the Baroness, ‘but I never give them outward expression. It’s as bad as looking one’s age.’”
― ‘The Way To The Dairy’
“I’m living so far beyond my means…”
“I’m living so far beyond my means that we may almost be said to be living apart.”
― The Unbearable Bassington
“I love Americans…”
“I love Americans, but not when they try to talk French. What a blessing it is that they never try to talk English.”
― ‘Adrian’