Well this has just reminded me of L'Hussier (The Bailiff) by Marcel Aymé so thank you for that. It's an excellent short story contained in The Man who Walked Through Walls available from Pushkin Press.
Well this has just reminded me of L'Hussier (The Bailiff) by Marcel Aymé so thank you for that. It's an excellent short story contained in The Man who Walked Through Walls available from Pushkin Press.
Recently read Underland, by Robert McFarlane, which referenced that very book - the title story being commemorated by a sculpture in the Paris catacombs.
My history teacher at Sec Mod had been a bailiff in the East End of London. He came to teaching late in life (his 50s?) so was neither burned out nor raging inwardly. He was great, he'd recite limericks when appropriate:
There was an old man called Ghandi
Who went into a pub for a shandy
He took off his loincloth to wipe off the froth
And the barmaid said "goodness that's handy!"
"I could feel my anxiety rising. I was shaking like a leaf and the gentleman said, 'My name's Gary Brown but you'll know me from Can't Pay? We'll Take it Away!"
An actual real life "Hi, I'm Troy McClure..." as well
Comment