Story Shortlisted in The London Magazine Competition

I’m thrilled to have a story on The London Magazine Short Story Competition shortlist. You can take a look at the list here. Equally thrilling was the do, held at the Houses of Parliament

The London Magazine is a prestigious magazine and has been going for a very long time. Apparently, they published Wordsworth and Keats, Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph Conrad, Jack London, and P. G. Wodehouse, Thomas Hardy, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden and Evelyn Waugh, William Burroughs, Harold Pinter, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Les Murray, William Boyd, Nadine Gordimer, and Derek Walcott! Wow!

I’m especially chuffed that this particular story made it to the shortlist because I’d taken a break from writing the longer short story, and this was the first story I’d written since the hiatus.

The prize-giving was at the Houses of Parliament in London – very exciting! I had to go through all sorts of security to get in and it was a brilliant experience to wander through the corridors, look at the paintings, marvel at the paneling and architecture, peep through windows, watch the great and the good eating in various ‘private’ dining rooms, waiters buzzing around with huge platters of food on silver trays. The London Magazine do was in a room backing onto the Thames, to the bottom left of this picture. All terribly interesting, I’m glad I went.