I think we can safely say that Dahl has a serious dark side. These four tales show that there is much more to this world famous children's author than chocolate factories and large friendly people. Each tale has a cunning and disturbing twist that leaves much for the readers' imagination to play and run with, as well as leaving the reader a little shocked. The first and last stories are both based on the diaries of dear Uncle Oswald, a traditional cad that enjoys travel, luxury and women and manages to find himself in a few sticky situations, all of his own making. The Great Switcheroo is a not so pleasant tale of two husbands who decide to switch wives for some early morning fun, but without their knowing. Thankfully it doesn't end completely well for them. The third story is about a woman struggling to move on from her husband's death and looks up an old flame, only to find him a little bitter, with tragic results. On the down side, each story is not exactly favourable to the female half of the population but this collection was first published in the mid 1970's when such matters were not as progressed (?) as they are now so I'm trying to ignore that side of these stories. And in all but one the stories end better for the women than it does the men, which sort of makes up for it.