All photos copyright Tom Pilston … [Read more...]
Five memorable moments from the Sunday Times story award events
My shortlisted story is published in the Sunday Times magazine today – a good time to remember the awesome fun I had in Oxford last week. 1 The Oxford Literary Festival green room. On my way in, I checked that my flies were done up, and only then noticed a camera crew pointed in my direction, filming Alexei Sayle. I hope they had him close … [Read more...]
Shortlisted!
Today I received my invitation to the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award Dinner – so I definitely didn’t hallucinate the whole thing. Booktrust called me a few days ahead of the official shortlist announcement, and I had to keep the news secret again until Sunday. Except this time, I was at work when the call came, and my colleagues … [Read more...]
Longlisted!
I am thrilled that my story 'Fewer Things' has been longlisted for the Sunday Times EFG short story award. Booktrust called on Thursday afternoon to tell me in advance of the list being published on Sunday. I was sworn to secrecy (and kept it, despite my urge to leap onto Twitter and Facebook). Had it been a regular week, I would have been at my … [Read more...]
Today’s writing outfit
I'm up in the attic working on my novel today. It's so damn cold I've got on five layers and this stupid tauntaun-fur hat. … [Read more...]
Manchester Literature Festival and Alan Turing
I’ve just got back from the Manchester Literature Festival, where I was reading at the launch of the anthology When It Changed, which has just been published by Comma Press. It was a surreal, wonderful weekend in which the mathematician Alan Turing was a recurring motif. The strangeness started in the train on the way up, where there were people … [Read more...]
The holiday that wasn’t
This week I was supposed to be in Marbella with Naomi and the kids, but my eight-year-old reacted badly to the lumbar puncture he had a few days before. He was throwing up for days afterwards and there was no way he could travel. So instead I had a week at home, and once my kid was starting to feel better, and I wasn’t having to empty sick buckets … [Read more...]
Clouds last night
Check out the thunderclouds that were building up when I went training on the common last night. Beautiful. … [Read more...]