With feelings running high after a bitterly contested election, the Baroness seeks to heal political divisions in the county and bring the parties together. Clovis suggests that staging an amateur performance of a classical Greek play could be just the ticket... The story starts at 00:01:30

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00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:30 The Peace Offering
00:13:44 Credits, thanks and further listening

Saki was the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro, one of the greatest masters of the short story form in English. He was born in 1870 in Burma, then part of British India, where his father was an Inspector General for the Imperial Police, but his life was affected by tragedy when he was just two years old: his mother Mary Munro was charged by a cow while visiting family back in England, and she died as a result of her injuries. Hector and his siblings were sent home to England, to live in Devon with his paternal grandmother and two maiden aunts. The aunts (Augusta and Charlotte) were apparently strict and austere and provided much material for future character studies in Saki's satires. After some 10 years or so, Hector eventually "escaped" to boarding school. In his early 20s he followed his father's footsteps and enrolled in the Indian Imperial Police, but was invalided home with fever after little over a year. Turning to writing to make his living, Munro began working as a journalist in the late 1890s. He wrote countless pieces for magazine and newspaper publication, and took up the pen name Saki around 1900. His always witty – and sometimes macabre – stories established his reputation as one of the greatest satirists of the Edwardian era.

Despite being officially over-age for military service, turning 44 at the end of 1914, he enlisted in World War I, turning down the offer of a commission and serving as an ordinary trooper in the 2nd King Edward’s Horse regiment. Tragically, he was killed by a sniper while sheltering in a shell hole during the Battle of the Ancre in November 1916. His last words were reported to be “Put that bloody cigarette out”. His resting place is unknown.

'The Peace Offering' first appeared in 'The Bystander', on 7 June 1911. Later that same year it appeared in book form as part of 'The Chronicles of Clovis' by Saki, published by John Lane.

The thumbnail image for this video is a detail from an 1882 oil painting entitled 'Clytemnestra', also known as 'Clytemnestra after the Murder', by the British artist John Collier (1850–1934).

Recording © Bitesized Audio 2024