He had visited Geierslay personally the previous summer in order to obtain the few bottles that they had finally allowed him to have. H e said that this wine we were drinking was something unusual, that the outpu t of the vineyard was so small that it was almost impossible for a stranger to get any of it. He leaned over and whispered to me that Ge ierslay was a tiny village in the Moselle, almost unknown outside Germany. He had set the bottle in front of me so that I could read the label. Mike got up and poured the wine himself, and when he sat down again, I could see that he was watching Richard Pratt. The meal began with a plate of whitebait, fried very crisp in butter, an d to go with it there was a Moselle. Tonight I felt sure that the little game would be p layed over again, for Mike was quite willing to lose the bet in order to prov e that his wine was good enough to be recognized, and Pratt, for his part, se emed to take a grave, restrained pleasure in displaying his knowledge. Pratt had accepted, and had won both times. Mike had then bet h im a case of the wine in question that he could not do it. Pratt had replied that that should not be too difficult provided it was one of the great years. As we sat down, I remembered that on both Richard Pratt's previous visits Mike had played a little betting game with him over the claret, challenging him to name its breed and its vintage. The tall candles, the yellow roses, the quantity of shining silver, the three wineglasses to each person, and above all, the fai nt scent of roasting meat from the kitchen brought the first warm oozings of saliva to my mouth. The moment we entered the dining-room, I could see that the tabl e was laid for a feast. And this one, clearly, was to be no exception. 'A prudent wine,' he woulĭ say, 'rather diffident and evasive, but quite prudent.' Or, 'A good-humou red wine, benevolent and cheerful slightly obscene, perhaps, but none the l ess good-humoured.' I had been to dinner at Mike's twice before when Richard Pratt was there, and on each occasion Mike and his wife had gone out of their way to produc e a special meal for the famous gourmet. He refused to smoke for fear of harming his p alate, and when discussing a wine, he had a curious, rather droll habit of referring to it as though it were a living being. He organized dinners where sumptuous dishe s and rare wines were served. He was president of a small society known as the Epicures, and each month he circulated privately to its membe rs a pamphlet on food and wines.
Taste THERE were six of us to dinner that night at Mike Schofield's house in Lon don: Mike and his wife and daughter, and my wife and I, and a man called R ichard Pratt.
The Butler Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life The Bookseller The Hitchhiker The Surgeon
#Free roald dahl short stories skin#
First published in Great Britain in 1991 'Someone Like You' © Roald Dahl 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1961 'The Umbrella Man', 'Mr Botibol', 'Vengeance is Mine mc' and 'The Butler' © Roald Dahl 1973, 1980 'Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life' © Roald Dahl 1976, 1989 'The Bookseller' © Roald Dahl 1986 'The Hitchhiker' © Roald Dahl 1977 'The Surgeon' © Roald Dahl 1986ĬONTENTS SOMEONE LIKE YOU Taste Lamb to the Slaughter Man from the South The Soldier My Lady Love, My Dove Dip in the Pool Galloping Foxley Skin Poison The Wish Neck The Sound Machine Nunc Dimittis The Great Automatic GrammatizatorĬlaud's Dog The Ratcatcher Rummins Mr Hoddy Mr Feasey EIGHT FURTHER TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED The Umbrella Man Mr Botibol Vengeance is Mine Inc. These bizar re plots-spiced with vibrant characters and subtle twists and turns-are utterly addictive. Through the stories runs a vein of macabre malevolence, springing from slight, almost inconsequential everyday things. Roald Dahl The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl Volume II Complete and Unabridged This further collection of Roald Dahi's adult short stories, from his worl d-famous books, again includes many seen in the television series, TALES O F THE UNEXPECTED.