‘The Man Who Liked Dickens’ by Evelyn Waugh

“Let us read Little Dorrit again. There are passages in that book I can never hear without the temptation to weep.”

Maybe this is the most horrible story of all time. It makes my throat close up whenever I read it. Waugh liked it so much he stuck it in his novel A Handful of Dust. Terrifying.

First published in Hearst’s International combined with Cosmopolitan, September 1933. Collected in The Complete Short Stories, Penguin, 2010. Also integrated into A Handful of Dust, Chapman & Hall, 1934, widely reprinted

‘Mr Loveday’s Little Outing’ by Evelyn Waugh

Oh dear. The Waugh phase. I read everything by him – Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies,etc. Waugh is really very good for fifteen-year-old girls. I understood his world of dark glamour and sardonic humour (sarcasm was my thing), and I loved the way he quietly laughs at everyone and invites you to join him. This story shocked me with its horribly brutal, funny ending. I read it again recently, and although I didn’t find it quite as amazing as I did then, I still love the innocent description of the girl on the bike and Mr Loveday’s naïve yet secretive smile.

First published 1935. Collected in Mr Loveday’s Little Outing and Other Early Stories, Penguin Classics, 2011 and The Penguin Book of English Short Stories, Penguin, 1967