Worming the Harpy
‘Herodotus is indeed an unusual cat. As with most felines he was born with nine lives, though he has done his best to reduce this number. Sometimes I will baste a vole for him, or grill a dogfish, while he relates his adventures with a slow languid wink in the smoky light of the charcoal ovens. Often we will share a bottle of Chablis or dip our tongues into the sherry syllabub and talk about old times and bewail a world that has changed far too much.’
The tales contained within Worming the Harpy and Other Bitter Pills are set in a surreal world of nightmares all too closely identifiable with real life. If The Cabinet of Dr Caligari was retouched by Ralph Steadman, with The Rolling Stones ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ as a soundtrack, you would have only the slightest inkling of the scintillating and horrific world conjured by Rhys Hughes.
Contents:
- Cat O' Nine Tales
- Worming the Harpy
- A Falling Star
- Quasimodulus
- The Good News Grimoire
- Fintlock Jaw
- Velocity Oranges
- A Carpet Seldom Found
- The Chimney
- One Man's Meat
- The Man Who Mistook His Wife's Hat for the Mad Hatter's Wife
- Cello I Love You
- What to Do When the Devil Comes Round to Tea
- Arquebus for Harlequin
- Eclair de Lune
- Grinding the Goblin
Rhys Hughes
Rhys Henry Hughes (born 1966) is a Welsh writer and essayist.
Born in Cardiff, Hughes is a prolific short story writer with an eclectic mix of influences, which include Italo Calvino, Milorad Pavić, Jorge Luis Borges, Stanisław Lem, Flann O'Brien, Felipe Alfau, Donald Barthelme and Jack Vance. Much of his work is of a humorously eccentric bent, often parodies and pastiches with surreal and absurdist overtones, although he is by no means limited to any of these forms and has proven to be extremely versatile. He has been published in Postscripts among many other places.