What a treat for readers of all ages is this new collection of Saki’s masterly – and frequently macabre – short stories. An unhappy early life spent with cold and neurotic aunts in England while his father was away in India, must surely have given rise to the regiment of monstrous women who feature in these stories, and who suffer come-uppances that vary from the humiliating to the fatal. It’s delightfully gruesome and delivered in spell-binding style. Quentin Blake’s illustrations catch the light and the dark of the tales and almost quiver with energy, framing characters on the very edge of disaster. A must-have book.
The local landowner Van Cheele experiences an unnerving encounter with a youth sunning himself near a pond, and starts to wonder if there is any connection between this wild-looking boy and the recent disappearances of poultry, hares, lambs and, more alarmingly, an infant child in the area. To his astonishment, he discovers the next day that his aunt has decided to take the boy in, buying him a suit of clothes and naming him Gabriel-Ernest. Van Cheele remains suspicious, especially when it is revealed that there is something supernatural about their new ward...
An eerie and disquieting tale about the dark side of adolescence, 'Gabriel-Ernest', written with Saki's trademark wit and mischievousness, is here presented with seven other uncanny and macabre tales, featuring Quentin Blake's inimitable illustrations.
