Short story competition
David Blackburn 3:36pmThe results of the Spectator-Barclays Wealth short story competition have been published over at the Spectator Book Club’s discussion boards. We received more than 500 entries of the highest quality, and trying to pick the winners from a shortlist of 10 inspired bitter debate at 22 Old Queen Street. The four runners-up have been printed in full at Spectator.co.uk, but the winning entry, Black Box by Jonathan Wynne Evans, is printed in the Spectator Christmas double issue. Here’s a taster of his suspense filled story:
Drifting curtains of fenland rain obscured everything from 20 yards so that, pedalling round the perimeter, the only indications of intense activity were waves of clatter from each dispersal as ground crews completed the arming of the Lancasters. Met had given it clear by 2100, only an hour away. Looked like we might yet have a quiet night in the Mason’s Arms.The first discernible form as I rolled up to our kite was Connor’s stumpy figure, a Russian-doll silhouette, back to the weather with cloud of pipe-smoke visible even through the gloom. Hearing the whirr of my bike, he turned quickly. Quick was not Connor’s usual thing. Looked as if he was awaiting me.
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Jez
December 15th, 2009 4:43pm Report this commentHow many words (minimum-max) are they looking for?
Jeremy
December 15th, 2009 5:59pm Report this commentI've just finished reading "Harry Kolotas - Mid-life Crisis?" and I really enjoyed it. I think the author has a good prose style and a quite penetrating understanding of what he was writing about. I hope that he continues to write.
There were a few typographical errors in the piece which ought to have been corrected before it was posted online.
Ahem
December 15th, 2009 10:12pm Report this commentThe writer needs to learn grammar: there's a hanging participle in the first sentence. Were "the only indications" doing the "pedalling"?
Jeremy
December 15th, 2009 11:04pm Report this comment"The Prophecies" by Max Dunbar:
The author affects a contemporary, naturalistic and "blokey" style of writing which I am not convinced that he has altogether mastered. This style also serves to mask, to some extent, the central concern of the story which is, in my view, the first-person narrator's failure to both acknowledge to himself and act upon his desire for the "awkward" young man. The narrator clearly saw and felt an echo of himself in this young man to which he did not fully respond.
Jeremy
December 16th, 2009 12:04am Report this commentFurther to my previous post on "The Prophecies" by Max Dunbar (and assuming that you do not object), having written about what I might consider to be the sublimated homo-eroticism in the story, I can now also see the other side of it; that the older man wants the younger man to to take his chance and cross a bridge that he, himself, has never managed to do. But I have to say that the complexity of the subject matter defeats the style in which the story has been written. Had the author chosen a slightly higher, a slightly more articulate and even poetic style - whilst still keeping it in a contemporary vein - then I think the story as a whole would have been more of a success.
That is my view.
Jez
December 16th, 2009 9:28am Report this commentSorry, 'How many words (minimum-max) were they looking for?'
David Blackburn
December 16th, 2009 11:33am Report this commentJez,
2,000 was the maximum
Jeremy
December 16th, 2009 12:05pm Report this commentDo you mean that I have to buy the magazine in order to read the winning story? What a swizz!
Jez:
"How many words (minimum-max) are they looking for?"
Jez...*places a hand on his shoulder*...me old mukka. It don't matter. It don't matter 'ow many words they wants....'cause it's over. It's finished, y'see? The competition. They don't want no words now. None at all. Not 'till next year, alright? Now....just you run along and read them stories. Them stories what's done. An' then makes a comment on 'em. They likes comments, them writers. Even if you write something as silly, overwrought and as wrong-headed as my last two posts....they still likes 'em. It's payin' 'em a bit of attention, you see. Like patting the dog. Go on, you 'ave a go....
My prize goes to Max Dunbar. In spite of the nonsense I've written about "The Prophecies", and in spite of what I might consider to be its stylistic infelicities, Mr Dunbar gets the prize for handling the most complex subject matter of the entries that I have read. I hope that he carries on writing, and continues to develop, refine and hone his style.
My personal runner-up would be "Harry Kolotas - Mid-life Crisis?", for the author's prose style - which I think is good - and for the degree of insight displayed in the story.
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