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Roald Dahl began to write these short stories when he was 30 years old, while he was living with his mother in Buckinghamsire. He worked on the short stories four hours seven days a week, he liked writing them, and he enjoyed himself. 

The short stories grew out of his experiences with Claud, a man of his own age. Both of them had a passion for betting on horses and greyhound races, and they shared a loved for trying to acquire something by stealing without paying for it, but only poached pheasants or tickled trout, or nicked a few plums from farmer’s orchard. 

AH, SWEET MYSTERY OF LIFE 

The narrator’s cow started bulling at dawn, so he decided to have the service of Rummins´s famous bull. 

The narrator goes to Rummins farm with his cow and his friend Claud. On the way Claud tells him that Rummins has a unique way of conducting a mating, that no one else in the world knows. They arrived at the farm where Rummins explains his method, if he points the cow into the sun it means that a heifer will result, but if he points the cow away the sun creates a bull. Rummins thinks that the reason is that the sun exerts a pull on the female sperm and makes them swim faster than male sperm. 

The surprised narrator asks Rummins if it’ll work with humans, Rummins says that he has got four boys of his own. 

PARSON´S PLEAUSURE 

Mr. Boggis is a dealer in antique furniture with his own shop in
Chelsea. He doesn’t do a great deal of bussinesess because he always bought cheap and sold very dear, but every year he always manages to make a tidy little income. 

Mr. Boggis finds rare items by dressing up as a clergyman and visits English farms telling farmers that he writes articles for the society for the Preservation of Rare Furniture. When he finds something interesting and valuable, he makes an offer and then sells the item for more money. 

Mr. Boggis goes to Buckinghamsire where he meets Claud, Bert and Rummins who has to be convinced to let Mr. Boggis come inside his house. Inside, Mr. Boggis sees a Chippendale commode which was built in the French rococo style, and there were known only three others of the same maker. It’s and important an valuable item, so Mr. Boggis convinces Rummins to sell him the commode saying to Rummins that the piece is a worthless Victorian reproduction, and he only needs the legs for a table he has at home. At first Rummins doubts but in the end he sells the commode to Mr. Boggis only for 20 pound. 

While Mr. Boggis goes to take the car, Claud, Bert and Rummins cut the legs of the commode because the commode will be difficult to put in the car, and Mr. Boggis only needs the legs. 

THE RATCATCHER 

The narrator is at the filling station with Claud when a ratcatcher arrives saying that he has been sent by the Health Officer to take care of the rat problem. Claud tells him that the rats he needs to kill are living in a hayrick across the road. 

The ratcatcher, who looks like a rat, has a plan, he leaves oats around the hayrick for a few days to gain the rat’s trust, and then he spreads poisoned oats to kill the rats. But when he comes back, he discovers that they haven’t touched the poisoned oats, he thinks that they might have another food supply. 

The the ratcatcher shows Claud and the narrator an other rat trick, he takes a rat from his pocket and a ferret from the other pocket, the rat and the ferret fight inside the ratcatcher´s  shirt, the rat dead, and the ferret is covered with blood. After that he claims he can do something more amazing, he can kill a rat himself, witout using his hands or arms or legs or feet, and gets Claud to bet him a shilling that he can’t. 

The ratcatcher looks at the rat, moving closer and closer, then he strikes like a snake with his mouth open biting. At that moment, the narrator closes his eyes, and when he opens them Claud is giving the money to the ratcatcher. 

RUMMINS 

The narrator of the story, Calud, Rummins and his son Bert go to fetch the hayrick in which they worked in summer. Bert is hacking into the hayrick with a knife, when he suddenly begins to hear strange noises, and he thinks the knife cut something solid. 

The narrator starts to remember the day that he helped build the hayrick in summer. They decided to stop working for lunch, so Claud and the narrator went to the filling station to have some sandwiches while Rummins was working and Ole Jimmy was having a nap. When they returned with the sandwiches the hayrick was finished and Ole Jimmy had disappeared. The narrator asked Rummins where he went, and he answered that Ole Jimmy went home. 

Now think, what can be the strange solid thing in the hayrick if the noise are some rats eating something? 

MR. HOODY 

Claud wants to marry Clarice, his girlfriend, so they go to Clarice´s house to speak with Mr. Hoody, Clarice´s father. 

Before that Clarice warns Claud not to mention his plan to win at the greyhound, so Claud has to make up something to please her father. 

They go to Clarice´s house where they meet her father. Claud begins to feel uncomfortable when Mr. Hoody starts asking him about his future business plans. CLaud makes up that he and his friend Gordon have some ideas that they’re working on. Claud tries to leave it at that, but Mr. Hoody presses him. Finally Claud says that they’re planning to set up a maggot factory. Mr. Hoody thinks he is a grocer and the thought of his daughter being supported by an income from maggots is disgusting to him. At the end Mr. Hoody asks Claud to stop and goes with him to the door. 

MR. FEASY 

Claud and the narrator are off to the greyhound racing with their dog Jackie, but Claud, who knows everything there is to know about greyhound racing, is sure they’ve got a winner.  

They’ve got a plan, before the race they bought a dead ringer for Jackie and prepared the dog to win, but there is a problem: Mr. Feasy who runs the track, a man who has an incredible memory and is able to spot an impostor dog from a mile away. 

Mr. Feasy tells them that he doesn’t intend to let them run their “champion” anymore, but Claud bets Mr. Feasy a pound that Jackie won’t come in the last place, so Mr. Feasy’s interested and he inspects the dog closely, satisfied that it´s the same dog, he accepts the bet and allows Jackie in the race. While Claud gets Jackie ready and bribes the winder, the narrator convinces the bookies to bet on Jackie. They win over two thousand pounds, but Mr. Feasy, furious, tells them that they’re banned for other races, and the other bookies don’t pay because he backed another dog and all the details are in the bookmaker’s book.  

THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD 

Claud and Gordon have a plan to hunt more birds that they’ve ever hunted. Gordon´s idea is to fill the raisins with sleeping pills and knock birds unconscious. They manage to get 120 birds, more than Claud’s father, a well-known hunter who Claud calls the “Champion of the world” ever got in one night was 15. 

They put the 120 birds in sacks and hired a taxi whose driver is Charlie Kinch, a man who never let Claud down. Claud says to Charlie that in the sacks they have cabbages. 

Next day they wait at the filling station for Bessie Organ the vicar’s wife, but before she gets there, the powder of the sleeping pills begin to wear off and the birds begin to fly out settle down on the filling station, which horrified Claud and Gordon. 

PERSONAL OPINION

Although these short stories are quite different from the books I’ve read by the same author (Charlie and the chocolate factory, Matilda, The Witches), I like them because they show how men live in the country, how they take care of their animals, how they work, what they do in their free time, … 

The book is sometimes a bit boring, but on the whole I think it’s an interesting book. 

Mónica Corrales Marbán

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