The short stories of Saki give brief but dazzling glimpses into the lives of the Edwardian rich: a class that virtually disappeared with the advent of the First World War.

In the splendour of Edwardian drawing rooms we encounter the opinionated and divinely dressed Reginald, the acid-tongued sophisticate Clovis and a host of other wealthy and well-to-do Englishmen and women from duchesses and dowagers to great-aunts, nannies and a talking cat. With delicious malice, Saki portrays the follies, eloquence, tradition and foibles of his characters. In a style that brings to mind the wit of Oscar Wilde, the satire of Swift and the macabre humour of Waugh, these stories nevertheless demonstrate that Saki`s voice was uniquely his own: wickedly amusing and as sharp and sparkling as cut glass.