Competitions & Prizes
 
      
      Longlisted: Dorothy Dunnett Historical Writers’ Association Short Story Award 2025 ‘Foie Gras for Two’
This short story was inspired by an architectural landmark in Liverpool, the city where I grew up, and it features dual narrators.
 
      
      1st Prize: du Maurier Fowey Literary Festival Short Story Competition 2025 ‘Making Waves’
Inspired by the seasonal workers drawn to the Cornish coast, during the summer season, my story ‘Making Waves’ features a sassy 20-something narrator with an eye for original thinking.
 
      
      Longlisted: Bedford Short Story Competition 2024 ‘Songs of Desire at the Library’
Libraries are bristling with inspiration, and this story was prompted by my childhood memories of a Modernist-designed library in the Liverpool suburbs.
 
      
      Shortlisted: Fish Short Story Prize 2022 ‘Delorean’
This short story was inspired by a chance meeting - in a car park - of three men, all strangers, but each one looking lovingly at this classic 1980s American-designed car. I was intrigued by the specific, detailed information each man possessed and shared, and their almost instant sense of brotherhood.
 
      
      Shortlisted: Yeovil Literary Prize 2022 ‘Pain Has Holy Beauty’
There are numerous landmarks I recall from Liverpool, where I grew up. Particularly memorable was a 1960s sculpture - ‘The Resurrection of Christ’ - by sculptor Arthur Dooley, projecting from the wall of a Toxteth church. I was inspired to write the story of a teenage girl, phoning her boyfriend, and arranging to meet beneath it.
 
      
      Shortlisted: London Short Story Prize 2018 ‘Like A Blooming Discotheque’
Anyone familiar with the northbound M6 motorway will recognise the iconic Forton motorway service station, built in the 1960s. Memories of this structure inspired me to write a story about a fractured family, the inconsistency of memory, and a father’s complex love for his daughter, woven around a split time-frame.
 
      
      Longlisted: Leicester Writes Short Story Prize 202o ‘Packing Like a Brownie Guide’
This short story was inspired by my observation at the airport that everyone possesses an almost identical black suitcase - and the consequences this might bring. Into the narrative, I’ve woven a personal memory of a how-to guide from a Brownie Guide Annual on the best way to pack, which brings my narrator great comfort.