“And while she was waiting for help to come, she fetched a pair of scissors and began cutting the string that held the two great wings of the swan to her son’s arms. He fainted and she called for the ambulance. Watson happened to look out her kitchen window at the exact moment her son flopped down out of the sky. Three different people reported seeing a great white swan circling over the village that day. He saw a light shining above the lake and spread his wings. Yet, the author tells us, there are some peoploe who will always be “unconquerable”. He remains hidden until one of the bullets hits him in the thigh. When he doesn’t jump, they begin firing at him with the rifle. Then they make him climb a high willow tree in order to jump off. He takes the dead swan and cuts its wings off, and then he and Raymond tie them to Peter’s arms. “That was a filthy thing to do! … You’re not fit to be alive!” Ernie gets an idea and claims that he can bring the swan back to life and make it flight around the sky. When he gets back on dry land, he turns on his captors. Peter retrieves it and hides the baby cygnets beneath from the bullies’ eyes. When he tries to refuse, they hit him and beat him. They shoot a duck and force Peter out into the lake to retrieve it for them. They march Peter to a nearby lake, a waterfowl sanctuary. The bullies are disappointed and decide on a new game.
#CREEPY ROALD DAHL SHORT STORIES HOW TO#
When he realizes that they are serious about not letting him go, he tries to figure out how to survive the train. Then they drag him to the railway line and tie him between the rails. They insult him and threaten to shoot him, but backoff when he reminds them that they’d be sent to prison. He’s smart and polite and nothing like them. As he relates in the introduction, he started the research for this book by making a call to the celebrated ghost-story anthologist/writer, Lady Cynthia Asquith. On the way they run into Peter Watson, a small frail boy who is watching birds. Roald Dahl (1916-1990) was a prickly, colorful character who wrote maliciously funny short stories for adults (The Best of Roald Dahl) as well as better-known works for children (James and the Giant Peach). Raymond, another bully, is Ernie’s best friend. Ernie is a violent, ignorant bully and hooligan. Spoiler warning! A boy named Ernie has been given a rifle for his birthday. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More.Ideal for a light read cuddled up with a mug of hot chocolate, and a quick break from heavier literature, while still being a great read in its own right. He doesn’t have just the one style of writing, and while you can pinpoint his obvious little quirks in language, he is also capable of changing voice from character to character very easily, making each short story unique with each new character he introduces.įinal rating: 5/5. All three, however, take on a bit of a turn that I wasn’t expecting, and deliver Dahl’s witty, sometimes dry, humour in a wonderful way.ĭahl’s writing even manages to fluctuate from story to story, showing the mark of a true author. The stories have no real common link between them, except that the first two deal with death in some shape or form. In my opinion, the best ones were the title story, Skin, Lamb to the Slaughte r and The Surgeon. There isn’t really a common theme in them except for appearances deceiving what’s really beneath every surface.
#CREEPY ROALD DAHL SHORT STORIES SKIN#
Skin and other stories has eleven stories in it, all of them seemingly leading in one direction and then quickly veering off into another. I bought as many of his short story collections as I could after that, and this is the first that I’ve read of them. My first encounter with Dahl’s short stories was a collection called Switch Bitch, which was compromised of four short stories about sex and adultery. What most people tend to not know is that he also had a wonderful career writing short stories, which were not as safe for younger children to read as one might expect from him. Most of you probably know Roald Dahl because of his children’s books – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, among others. I have never written a review for a group of short stories…so this is gonna be a challenge and a half…