Skin and Other Stories - Facts

 

In the first story, Skin, the artist who paints and tattooes the image of Drioli's wife on his back is Chaim Soutine. Chaïm Soutine was a French painter of Belarusian-Jewish origin of the School of Paris, who made a major contribution to the Expressionist movement while living and working in Paris. 

Drioli sees Soutine's exhibition in Rue de Rivoli. The Rue de Rivoli is a street in central Paris, France. It is a commercial street whose shops include leading fashionable brands.

In An African Story the pilot retells the story of an old man he met in Kenya. 

The snake that sucks milk from the old man's cow is a mamba. Mambas are fast-moving, highly venomous snakes. They are native to various regions in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Galloping Foxley, Perkins was a student in Repton School where he was bullied continuously. Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, private, boarding and day school in the public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire.

In the Surgeon, Robert Sandy is a surgeon in the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. The Radcliffe Infirmary was a hospital in central north Oxford, England, located at the southern end of Woodstock Road. 

The diamond that Robert is given belongs to the treasure chest of old King Ibn Sud of Arabia. Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud  (15 January 1875 – 9 November 1953), known in the Western world as Ibn Saud, was the founder and first king of Saudi Arabia, reigning from 23 September 1932 until his death in 1953.