‘Never speak ill of Society. Society is perfectly capable of doing that for itself...’

View the world of Edwardian society through the jaundiced eye of Clovis Sangrail, Saki's deliciously louche anti-hero.

Richard Crowest brings these darkly witty stories to life in a series of free, professionally produced readings, available exclusively from Corvidae.

The series began in July 2007, and new stories are added regularly. You can download or listen to individual stories using the links below, subscribe to the podcast feed or use iTunes.

"I usually listen to speaking books as I drop off to sleep in bed... I've had to stop that habit with the Clovis, though. I don't go to sleep because I keep startling myself awake by guffawing into the pillows. Top stuff!"  Alex Rieneck

"Beautifully read. Wonderfully acted."  Bruce Dow

1. The She-Wolf – White Fang meets White Mischief...  
2. Laura – Petty vindictiveness is stronger than death.  
3. The Boar-Pig – In which Mrs Stossen attends a party, and Matilda makes a killing.  
4. The Brogue – In which the Mullets lose a horse and gain a son-in-law.  
5. The Hen – In which Mrs Sangrail commits a social faux-pas and Clovis performs a miracle.  
6. The Open Window – In which the restfulness of romance is greatly over-estimated.  
7. The Treasure Ship – In which the Duchess of Dulverton discovers that gold diggers make poor treasure seekers.  
8. The Cobweb – For Hallowe’en, an atmospheric tale of death foretold.  
9. The Lull – There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to... sleepless nights.  
10. The Unkindest Blow – In which the aristocracy learns a trick or two from the working masses.  
11. The Unkindest Blow – In which a scrounger is treated to a story that beggars belief.  
12. The Schartz-Metterklume Method – In which the children get an education the parents will never forget.  
13. The Seventh Pullet – One should always have something sensational to say in the train.  
14. The Blind Spot – "Clear soup is a more important factor in life than a clear conscience."  
15. Dusk – All washed up? Perhaps a cake of soap might help.  
16. A Touch of Realism – In which Lady Blonze learns to be careful what she wishes for.  
17. Cousin Teresa – Blame it on the Borzoi.  
18. The Yarkand Manner – “No one is a hero to one's own office-boy”.  
19. The Byzantine Omelette – A socialist socialite discovers that you can‘t make an omelette without breaking a strike.  
20. The Feast of Nemesis – In which Clovis puts the case for a season of ill will.  
21. The Dreamer – If department stores are temples of commerce, it's always respectful to cover your head.  
22. The Quince Tree – ‘I think to have a quince tree and not to make quince jam shows such strength of character.’  
23. The Forbidden Buzzards – or… Clovis and the Art of Defensive Matchmaking.  

Beast and Super-Beasts artwork by Liz Dixon

New for 2011

The Ghost Stories of E F Benson - a rather different style of story from another great 20th-century social satirist.

1. Esmé – Clovis lends a grudging ear as the Baroness relates a hunting story with a difference.  
2. The Match-Maker – Clovis finds ultimate spiritual fulfilment in the unselfishness of an oyster, and announces his plans for his Mother's third marriage.  
3. Tobermory - If you can talk to the animals - and they can talk to you - it's time to reach for the strychnine.  
4. Mrs Packletide's Tiger – Envy, envy, burning bright...  
5. The Stampeding of Lady Bastable - Clovis finds a revolutionary way of avoiding an unpleasant stay at the Bastables' country seat.  
6. The Background - Beauty may be only skin deep, but what about art?  
7. Hermann the Irascible - A Story of the Great Weep - An alternative history of the Suffragette movement, where the cat-and-mouse act is replaced by the cat-and-cream act...  
8. The Unrest-Cure* - When Clovis overhears a railway passenger lamenting his humdrum life, he wates no time in devising a remedial program - or should that be pogrom?  
9. The Jesting of Arlington Stringham - The quest for domestic harmony is no joking matter...  
   
10. Sredni Vashtar - Saki's darkest tale, a stark warning to all domineering guardians not to go ferreting around where they're not wanted...  
11. Adrian - A Chapter in Acclimatization - ‘One can discourage too much history in one's family, but one cannot always prevent geography.’  
12. The Chaplet - If music be the food of hatred...  
13. The Quest - Clovis braves hysterical parents and Christian Scientists in his search for hollandaise.  
14. Wratislav - Baa baa black sheep - have you any conscience?  
15. The Easter Egg - A seemingly innocent story with a bleak and bitter twist in the tail - one with startling pre-echoes of an event that would lead ultimately to Saki's own death, along with millions upon millions of others. Perhaps its real tragedy, though, lies in the way it highlights how little has changed in the last century.  
16. Filboid Studge - The Story of a Mouse that Helped - Credit Crunch for breakfast, anyone?  
17. The Music on the Hill - Beware of horned beasts in autumn time.  
18. The Story of St Vespaluus - Honey for the Prince?  
19. The Way to the Diary - in which the Brimley Bomefields find an aunt - and lose a fortune.  
20. The Peace Offering - in which the Baroness plans an entertainment, and Cassandra foretells disaster - with a little help from Clovis.  
21. The Peace of Mowsle Barton - The peace and quiet of the countryside is like a duck pond - calm and tranquil on the surface, but with secrets hidden in its murky depths...  
22. The Talking-Out of Tarrington - in which Clovis covers his aunt’s escape with a peach of a story.  
23. The Hounds of Fate They're in the trees. They're coming.  
24. The Recessional - in which Clovis pens an ode and Mrs Packletide finally bests Loona Bimberton.  
25. A Matter of Sentiment - "Lady Susan disapproved of racing. She disapproved of many things; some people went as far as to say that she disapproved of most things."  
26. The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope - What dark impulses lurk in the breast of the editor of the Cathedral Monthly?  
27. Ministers of Grace - The Duke of Scaw is on the side of the angels - but whose side are the angels on?  
28. The Remoulding of Groby Lington - A man is known by the company he keeps.  

* A note about The Unrest-Cure

Some have suggested that the subject matter of The Unrest Cure indicates that Munro was anti-Semitic. I would strongly argue exactly the opposite. The whole point of the story is that Clovis's fictional pogrom is an affront to the moral values of any reasonable human being. It is Huddle's horrified reaction to "Prince Stanislaus"'s news that should guide our view of what Munro saw as the accepted order of the world. The fact that Huddle asks "Do you mean to tell me there's a general rising against them?" sadly shows that there was an undercurrent of anti-Semitism in British society at the time, but the plot of The Unrest Cure depends entirely on Huddle - and the reader - finding such an idea utterly reprehensible. It is a hideous irony that the twentieth century was later to be blotted in a way far more horrific than even Clovis could have imagined, but the gruesome idea at the heart of this tale does not mean that Munro, or those who continue to enjoy his stories, share any of the views of Clovis's monstrous imaginary bishop.