Saki.

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I was vaguely aware of a writer who was fairly prevalent in the 1960s and went by the pen-name of Saki - there were others who used the same identification system at the time, Mandrake, Beachcomber, etc.

I didn't pay a lot of attention to Saki, but regarded him as a more modern version of Rudyard Kipling, if I had had to describe him ever.

Tonight, in desperation at what else is on, I found myself listening to a Radio 4 Extra programme about him - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082m09r

Imagine my surprise to discover that someone who seemed fairly current when I was a child was actually killed by a sniper in 1916...
 

industryarch

Well-Known Forumite
I was vaguely aware of a writer who was fairly prevalent in the 1960s and went by the pen-name of Saki - there were others who used the same identification system at the time, Mandrake, Beachcomber, etc.

I didn't pay a lot of attention to Saki, but regarded him as a more modern version of Rudyard Kipling, if I had had to describe him ever.

Tonight, in desperation at what else is on, I found myself listening to a Radio 4 Extra programme about him - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082m09r

Imagine my surprise to discover that someone who seemed fairly current when I was a child was actually killed by a sniper in 1916...
H h munro. Great but scary stories
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
H h munro. Great but scary stories
Indeed, I remember him, and his "quiz answer" real name, and the 'rather harder' stories - I just had absolutely no idea that he had been dead for fifty years at that point. He seemed slightly old-fashioned, but only in a 1950s sort of way.

The programme is well worth listening to.

An interesting point was to suggest that he was a Roald Dahl precursor, that's a very good assessment, I think.
 
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