clock … watching time, the only true currency

I picked up a slim paperback by Roald Dahl called Over to You a few months ago. This collection of short stories was initially published in 1945, pulled together from their initial appearances in various magazines of the time. All the tales spring from Dahl’s experience as an R.A.F. fighter pilot in the first years of the war, before he was injured. These are bleak and sparse stories. Only one, “Beware of Dog,” showed a hint of the edge and dust-dry bitter humor which makes many of Dahl’s later short stories such a vicious pleasure to read.

Since the volume was published 61 years ago, I’ll point to Wikipedia for this list of Roald Dahl short stories. And the full page shows an interesting life lived broadly. I have a couple of later collections on the shelf… may have to dip into them once again, just for that keen edge.

Dahl wrote various wonderful stories, but the one which I got to first, long ago, was Danny, the Champion of the World. I expect a re-read would spoil it somewhat, as it was written for a younger audience, but probably not as jarring as the Narnia re-read.