European Cultural Foundation Summit

I love libraries and seek them out wherever I go. I therefore couldn't be happier to be one of the winners of the European Cultural Foundation's competition on the theme of How a Library Changed My Life. As part of the prize, I was invited to a summit in Amsterdam for librarians called 'If Librarians Ran Europe' - what a proposition, and what an interesting group to meet! The winning stories were published in a book to accompany the summit and also recorded by actors. It was a great experience and lovely to be back in the Netherlands, the country which inspired my story. Here is a recording of my story .

Crimebits selected by Lee Child

I am delighted to feature twice in Crimebits, a selection of crime openings selected by Lee Child and published by Black Spring Press. 

Crime Writers' Association/Margery Allingham Short Story 2024

It was great to attend Crimefest in Bristol in May, following my short-listing in the Margery Allingham short story competition for my story, Horses for Courses. 

Plaza Prize 2023- Hitler's Alligator

In October 2023, I was thrilled to go to the International Book Festival in Malta to receive the 2023 Plaza Prize (winner, short story category) and read from my story, Hitler's Alligator. I was also delighted to feature in the first Plaza Prizes Anthology. 

Pleased to announce that my short story Hitler’s Alligator has won the 2023 Plaza Awards: https://theplazaprizes.com/short-story-8000-max-winners-top-3/. Bring on the awards ceremony in Malta! Judge Roland Watson-Grant described it as "a sweeping, layered tale. Grounded in reality and set in one of history’s most gruesome moments, this darkly comical story offered dual perspectives of man and beast, the capturer and the captured, with such pace, it holds on and never lets go the reader right to the very end".

Winning short story published!

Thrilled that my winning entry for the Margery Allingham/Crime Writers' Association Short Story Prize is now available to read here. Enjoy! 

Crime Writers' Association - Margery Allingham Short Mystery Prize

Couldn't be happier at winning the Margery Allingham Short Mystery Prize for my story Heartbridge Homicides. Click here and here for more details. Here's how the judges described it: "A delightful, beautifully written story set in TV soapland. The breezy narration never falters as the charm of solving a crime creeps over the soap's fan. The judges felt Margery would have loved this story." It will be published on the CWA website later in the year. 

Bridport Prize shortlisting

I first heard about the Bridport Prize when I was about eleven. I remember reading about it on an outing to my local library in Leicester and thinking it would be fun to enter. Thirty plus years later, I still love a library and am delighted that my short story Hitler's Alligator has made it onto the shortlist out of nearly 5,000 entries, putting it in the top 2%. 

Fish Publishing Short Story Prize

Thrilled that my story No Alternative is a winner in the Fish Short Story Prize, and has been published in their 2019 Anthology.  No Alternative was described by judge Mia Gallagher as: "A subtle tale which appears to start simply enough, bleakness suffusing every line of its spare, unshowy prose in  the opening section. Everything seems straightforward. Okay, you'll think, I've got it, I know where this is going. But then a single line - a man's heart unpredictably skipping - snares you, and you're hooked, following the chilly, relentless inevitability of Paul's journey as he, you and the story sink deeper into a profound Mephistophelian darkness. This subject matter, if handled with less integrity, could result in something horribly schlocky. In this writer's hands it is perfect. Faust for the FundMe generation."

You can buy the anthology here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fish-Anthology-2019-Richard-Lambert/dp/0995620024

Wundor Short Fiction Prize

Pleased to report that my novella The Inaugural Iraq Garden Tour has won second prize in the Wundor Short Fiction Prize! http://www.wundoreditions.com/wundor-short-fiction-contest-2018-results.html

Brieven uit Londen - Dutch translation

I am really pleased that the Dutch translation of Pictures at an Exhibition, Brieven uit Londen (Letters from London) is now out! It has a great cover, as I'm sure you'll all agree.  If you know anyone Dutch - let them know!

Clan Macpherson: Catch not a cat....

Many thanks to the Clan Macpherson Association for its loyal support of Pictures at an Exhibition. There was a wonderful turn-out of Macphersons at my book launch last year at Waterstone's Leadenhall Market, and the annual magazine, Creag Dubh, contains a photo of me signing copies as well as a review.

Living the letters for real

I met up with Carly Butler today, a Canadian in London researching her grandmother's war-time story through the letters she sent during that time and planning a book about the experience. I read about her adventure in the paper and couldn't believe someone was following just the kind of war-time/letter journey for real that I imagined when I wrote Pictures at an Exhibition! What a brilliant adventure she is having. Here is a picture of us at the National Gallery in the shop where I was also pleased to discover that the copy of Pictures at an Exhibition that Carly bought was my third sale of the day. 

Waterstone's Islington

Do come to my Q&A on 29 November at Waterstone's on Islington Green (nearest tube Angel), from 6.15!

Best of British Magazine

Please take a look at my article in this month's issue of Best of British magazine (readership 100,000 a month) - all about the National Gallery during the Second World War. I really hope you like it! You can buy Best of British at WHSmith or online.

Pictures at an Exhibition - Audiobook now available

Very excited to collect a mystery package from the Post Office yesterday and open it to reveal three copies of the audiobook of Pictures at an Exhibition. I didn't even know there was going to be an audiobook! Complete and unabridged and available from Isis Publishing...https://www.isis-publishing.co.uk/osb/itemdetails.cfm/ID/7125

Skyping with the Yummy Mummy's Book Club

Lovely time last night appearing at a book club in St Alban's by skype.  I now feel technically ept on two fronts - first, the use of QR codes in Pictures at an Exhibition, which is unique in fiction, and then speaking to a book club remotely. It opens up the whole world! Thank you to all the members for asking such good questions and being so positive about my book (and so kind about me dialling in late!).

Hampstead & Highgate Literary Festival

I appeared at my first literary festival this weekend - the Hampstead & Highgate Literary Festival not too far from where I live. It was a pleasure to meet the other panellists, Kathleen MacMahon (author of This is How it Ends) and Harriet Lane (author of Alys, Always), and Belinda Jack who acted as facilitator.  Belinda is the author of, amongst other things, non-fiction book The Woman Reader, which tells the history of women's reading and the controversies that it has inspired.

Review in the Irish Examiner

I was really pleased to see this interview and review by Sue Leonard in the Irish Examiner, calling Pictures at an Exhibition "Stunning. The best debut I've read this year."

http://www.irishexaminer.com/archives/2012/0901/features/beginners-pluck-206008.html

Waterstone's Islington recommended read

Thank you to my friend Duncan for sending me this photo of Pictures at an Exhibition on display at Waterstone's in Islington and described as "an absolutely brilliant read". I think the book looks great and I am looking forward to appearing at a book club there in November.