Saki (Hector Hugh Munro, 1870-1916) was an English prose-writer and journalist. His pen-name, translated from Farsi, means “cupbearer”. Saki’s short satirical stories are notable for the subtlety of their humour, well-turned phrases, the refinement of dialogues and slightly cynical irony. These amusing tales acquaint readers with the British society of the Edwardian epoch in its diversity, half-opening unusual, sometimes grotesque, absurd or even mystical sides of outwardly ordinary and safe reality.