Introduction Biography Addresses Portraits
Books Short stories Stage plays Film and TV Radio and audio
Quotations Fishing Poetry Food Settings Dedications Narrative style Canning in the OED Reading lists Articles on Canning
Centenary News Links Availability

She knew what she wanted

Short Story, 1,775 words

Freddie Marburg, successful dramatist, returns to his flat after a hard day's rehearsal to find a woman wielding a pistol. He is sure all she wants is an audition, but what is the role she is auditioning for?

This is one of the very last short stories Canning published. At the time he was doing a lot of work in television and was also writing play scripts, so would have been familiar with the milieu of theatre. There are echoes of the Mulliners of Hollywood short stories of P.G.Wodehouse.

Woman's Own, 13 February, 1965

Included in the collection Comedies and Whimsies, ed. John Higgins, 2009.