Home of The Naughty Stories Series
How will Harry the painter escape from the bikers? Who is the mysterious hitcher in the frozen Canadian winter? Will the brat Kevin get his comeuppance? And will Anouk and Hans get away with swimming in the wild? Are you a sheep or a wolf in sheep’s clothing? Do you like whips or quips? Do you soak it up, or dare you take it like a man? Or indeed a nun?.
Carte Rouge is a collection of naughty, short stories, a series of sly vignettes and comic tableaux, compiled and curated by new best friends, George and Giorgio. For all members of the lazy book club, Carte Rouge is the indulgent companion for idle days by the pool, the longeurs of the airport lounge and the post-industrial metro of the modern world. – M T Sands
Without doubt they were the most glamorous couple in the restaurant: he with his sharp blue eyes, carefully cropped hair and muscular frame, dressed in a suit of sangfroid; she with her long dark hair, flashing eyes and the simplest, most elegant red dress adorning her tanned and gluten-free body. Their conversation was animated but …
She was, by her own estimation, the restless type. She lived on the edge of her nerves. It was an edge that she might fall off at any moment and precipitate into the void. One day, she knew would have to deal with it, but for the time being, she chose to ignore it and …
“When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.” Milan Kundera Italians always say London is grey. It is the common place, as we say, you English the cliché. And I thought the same till a certain lady friend took me for a little walk along the Embankment, just before the sun is …
Nicknamed the Ragno, or Spider, Guido was the innkeeper of a notorious tavern. For a fee husbands and blackmailers could make use of the spider holes that had been fashioned in the bucolic scenes and the taxidermist’s dreams that hung on the walls of the chambers. Guido made no secret of his enjoyment of such …
It was unrequited love. She was a large woman, and he had a thing about large women, but Lola wasn’t interested. “Don’t be silly, Phil. You’ll get over it!” No matter how hard he protested, she would not take him seriously. She was quite happy to go drinking with him, or even out to the …
“Suck my finger.” “No, he doesn’t say that yet.” “When does he say it then?” “He must wait a beat.” “The beat is so crucial.” “She’s working on him.” “By the way, where are they?” “You’ve forgotten.” “In the Jacuzzi?” “That’s right. There’s Live and Let Die on the soundtrack.” “The Wings’ song? McCartney?” “No, …
“I want you,” said Andy, kissing her passionately. “You can’t have me,” she said, kissing him back. “Oh, come on, am I that bad looking?” “No, you are actually very handsome.” “So, what is it?” “You are not clean.” “How do you know I am not clean?” “Unless you have washed in the last five …
It was a cold day, as he remembered it, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. He had the chains on the wheels because where he was going to a friend’s log cabin for the weekend, there was a risk of ice on the road. When he saw the hitcher up ahead of him, he did not …
“You only live twice. Once when you are born, and once when you look death in the face.” Ian Fleming “There is a third, but you won’t know it until you get there.” George Giorgio asks me if I ever look death in the face. My natural inclination is to avoid the question, which just …
It is a well-known conceit of Italian life that both husband and wife are happy to take a lover or a mistress, but neither are willing to contemplate divorce, since neither wishes to upset the equilibrium in which the other lives. The case of the lawyer Pelligrini who had arrived with his wife and two …