The Parrot Who Could: And Other Stories

by Robin Skelton

The Parrot Who Could is a collection of imaginative “entertainments,” stories with a comically ironic twist. Included are “Portrait of a Duck,” which was selected by The Malahat Review, and “Penny Wise,” which won the Okanagan Short Fiction Prize in 1985.

164 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Robin Skelton was a writer and poet. He also wrote as Georges Zuk.

Reviews

[Phil Della · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because it is by a former creative writing professor of mine who has long since passed away. As I recall, Robin Skelton turned his hand to fiction later in his career after spending most of his time writing poetry, histories and occult books and editing anthologies. It turned out that he had quite the sense of humour as this light-hearted collection exemplifies. I recall that it was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.

If you are looking to be amused then you won't be disappointed. All of the stories are told in the first person, which got tiresome. There are only a few that explore the silly side of the paranormal. I am surprised to find that no one else has read this book in this online era. Skelton certainly was a prolific author and an entertaining lecturer. He would talk the entire class without the aid of notes. I am not surprised that he could crank out over 100 books what with his gift of the gab. His autobiography is worth the read: Memoirs of a Literary Blockhead.