For the most part the English is the sort of modern, neutral English that you would come across today and so almost all of it is appropriate for you to learn and use, but some of the dialogue is a bit dated. I’m not sure when the story is set, but it feels a bit old fashioned. The story was published over 30 years ago now, and was probably written earlier than that. “Roald Dahl: The Complete Short Stories Vol.1 & 2” The Umbrella Man appears in “The Complete Short Stories Vol.2” They are available from all the usual bookshops. The books are called “Roald Dahl: The Complete Short Stories Vol.1 & 2” and I highly recommend them. I’ve got two books of his short stories for adults. I’d like to suggest that you purchase some of his work – his books. His most famous stories were written for children (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, James & The Giant Peach, the BFG, Matilda and plenty of others) and my childhood was full of Roald Dahl stories (maybe yours too), but he also wrote a lot of short stories for adults or young adults, particularly earlier in his career. He was born in 1916 and died in 1990 and most of his writing was done in the 70s and 80s. You might already be aware of him and his work. Roald Dahl is one of the UK’s favourite authors, and of course he’s popular around the world too. It was a popular one, so let’s do it again. I think it was originally published in 1980 in his book “More Tales of the Unexpected”.ĭo you know Roald Dahl? I have read a Roald Dahl story on this podcast before – that was The Hitchhiker in episode 545. The story I’m going to read today is called The Umbrella Man by Roald Dahl. Check the show notes for the link for that.

The notes and stuff will also be available on the page for this episode on my website.

I am currently videoing myself while recording this episode and the video will be available on my YouTube channel and on my website, and I’m sharing my screen in the video so you can read my notes and the text for this story with me, if you like – sort of like an on-screen transcript. I’ll also give some comments on the story afterwards and I will highlight a few bits of vocabulary at the end, but the main thing is that I’d just like to let you listen to a good-quality and entertaining short story in English. In this episode I’m going to read a short story to you, which I hope will be an entertaining and pleasant way to learn English with my podcast. Click here for information about LEP Premium Transcript & Notes

Roald dahl short stories book 1970s