[2][3] James Hilton (author of Goodbye, Mr Chips and Lost Horizon) said of Aumonier: "I think his very best works ought to be included in any anthology of the best short stories ever written."

[7] Stacy's brother, William (also an architectural sculptor) was responsible for recreating the interiors of Tutankhamun's tomb at the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley in 1924.

Although he would later write critically about English public schools (in newspaper articles for both the London Evening Standard and the New York Times[9]) for the manner in which he considered they tried to impose conformity on their students, his record indicates that he integrated comfortably into Cranleigh.

[8][10] When he left school, he seemed destined to follow family tradition, studying and working in the visual arts, in particular as a landscape painter.

"...the stage lost in him a real and rare genius," said The Observer in an Appreciation[12] published shortly after Aumonier's death, "he could walk out alone before any audience, from the simplest to the most sophisticated, and make it laugh or cry at will."

In Written in Friendship, a Book of Reminiscences,[13] Gerald Cumberland wrote that Aumonier's work on stage was the perfect preparation for his later writing career, describing it as "an almost ideal apprenticeship in literature.

In a letter to his friend, Rebecca West, written soon before his death, he described the extraordinarily uncomfortable conditions in a sanatorium in Norfolk during the winter of 1927, where the dampness was so severe that a newspaper left beside the bed would feel "sodden to the touch in the morning".

[3][15] Shortly before his death, he sought treatment in Switzerland, but died of the disease in Clinique La Prairie at Clarens beside Lake Geneva on 21 December 1928.

[3][5] Contemporary accounts – and his own letters, even at the worst times of his illness[15] – suggest that Aumonier was an immensely likeable, witty man.

The chief fiction critic of The Observer, Gerald Gould wrote: "His gifts were almost fantastically various; they embraced all the arts; but it was the charm and generosity of his personality which made him—what he unquestionably was—one of the most popular men of his generation."

When in repose, his face has a look of shy eagerness; his quick eyes glance here and there gathering a thousand impressions to be stored up in his brain.

It is the face of a man extremely sensitive to external stimulus; one feels that his brain works not only rapidly, but with great accuracy.

A four-part series based on the work of Stacy Aumonier (1887- 1928), considered by his contemporaries to be one of the best short story writers of his time.

Aumonier ... John Baddeley Gertrude ... Oona Beeson Lowes-Parlby ... Nicholas Boulton Vermeer ... John Evitts Meadows ... Barry J Gordon Mrs Dawes ... Diana Payan The Prince ... Lyndam Gregory Orme ... Colin Pinney Pengammon ... James Taylor Dramatised by Martin Worth Director: Matthew Walters First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1993.

A Source of Irritation Grumpy Sam Gates wants to get on with looking after his turnips in a Suffolk field, but before he knows what's happening, he has been swept off to be a major player in the First World War.

Aumonier .... John Baddeley Sam ... Colin Pinney Aggie ... Oona Beeson Schutz ... Dominic Letts Haussman ... James Taylor Jennings ... Michael Onslow Baines ... David Thorpe Bradshaw ... Barry J Gordon Dramatised by Martin Worth Director: Matthew Walters First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1993.

Aumonier/Battersley ... John Baddeley Freddie ... Julian Rhind Tutt The Baron ... Sandor Eles The Countess ... Diana Payan Olga ... Teresa Gallagher Emma ... Oona Beeson Jane ... Rachel Atkins Dramatised by Martin Worth Director: Matthew Walters First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1993.

Funeral March At a smart Paris gathering, Aumonier is amused by the darkly comic story of Madame Vieninoff and her poor, late husband - the composer Sergei.

Aumonier ... John Baddeley Mme Vieninoff ... Fiona Fullerton Denoyer ... Barry J Gordon Sergei ... Dominic Letts Pitau ... Philip Anthony Yves ... Julian Rhind Tutt Taillandier ... Steve Hodson Dramatised by Martin Worth Director: Matthew Walters First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1993.

He wrote with equal empathy about the very poor, the very rich, men, women, the ambitious, hobos, pompous husbands, shallow wives, war heroes, deserters, idealists, thieves.

"An Octave of Jealousy," for instance, is influenced at least slightly by O.Henry (in particular, one of his best short stories, "The Social Triangle") another writer whom Aumonier said he admired greatly.

The parlour door was open, and he could see a maid in a cap and apron clearing away tea things in the gaily-furnished room.

Little bits of cheese, penny tins of mustard, string, weighing out sugar and biscuits, cutting bacon, measuring off ribbons and calico, and flannelette.

Part V: Mr Mounthead feels comfortable about money, but not about his social status, which is not as high as that of his neighbour, the "gentleman farmer," Lewis Wonnicott.

Part VI: Mrs Wonnicott, in turn, is worried about her own position in the neighbourhood, complaining to her husband that they don’t have the same social status as their neighbours, the Burnabys.

Part VII: Mrs Burnaby, in turn, complains to her husband that their son won’t be able to advance his diplomatic career because they lack the power and influence of their neighbour, Sir Septimus Letter—an M.P., "owner of half the newspapers in the country" and a millionaire.

"Where Was Wych Street" is a type of story at which Aumonier excelled: a trivial incident develops gradually (involving every class of society as it grows) into a crisis that has national or global implications.

Beginning at a public tavern in Wapping, where "the company was certainly not a handsome one," it proceeds through the courts and then to the home of a government minister, who is hosting a dinner party attended by, among others, his ambitious future son-in-law, who has the following thoughts about his wife-to-be: "But the most sparkling jewel in the crown of his successes was Lady Adela Charters, the daughter of Lord Vermeer, the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

It has a plot twist that involves one of the characters, Colin St Clair Chasseloup: "the kind of man who always looked as though he had just had a cold bath, done Swedish drill, and then passed through the hairdresser’s on his way to your presence."

Women who have held some kind of social position in their own country, and become impoverished, develop the not unreasonable idea that they can live more cheaply, and with more dignity, in a foreign hotel."