Other Writing
The Perfect Day
A crime story and winner of Greenock Writers Club Summer Trophy 2020
It was a day for it. The Gods were angry. She understood anger.
The Met Office gale prediction of Beaufort 8 had been correct. The sky was dark and heavy. Rain lashed the windows. Gusts of wind thrashed the dried grasses on the cliff edge. The waterfalls on the cliff opposite, yesterday mere trickles, were today thunderous torrents cascading down, occasionally wind-whipped up into sprays like dragon’s breaths….
Lady Mordaunt Scandal
Winner of Greenock Writers Club Article Trophy November 2017 (a public scandal).
Scandal! Everyone has always loved a scandal. How the public takes vicarious pleasure in revelations of immorality or illegal skulduggery. How eagerly it loves to show outrage or anger. The more titillating the detail or higher the ‘mighty’ exposed as ‘fallen’ are, the better. But times and social mores change. Yesterday’s disgrace may be today’s norm. Like divorce. Once socially unacceptable1, now commonplace. Yet sex has always been hot news. Especially if it involves the Prince of Wales… in 1870.
Only a Satchel
Winner of the 2016 Janetta Bowie Memorial Trophy for a short story on migration.
The poignant story of a Jewish family fleeing the Hungarian uprising in 1957. Extract:
Fifty years ago. A lifetime. A migration from oppression. A flight leaving behind a hero. But I would have preferred a father who came with us. Heroes are for books, not families.