"People may say what they like about the decay of Christianity; the religious system that produced green Chartreuse can never really die."
-- Saki

Saki was the pen name of British author Hector Hugh Munro, a witty, often macabre author who wrote an appreciative novel of the German conquest of England an then (in his forties, mind you!) signed up to die on the Belgian front during World War I. He's considered a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. His stories are generally short, and often memorable. If you haven't read him before, you're in for a treat.