Student Writer

My tutors are Tricia Wastvedt, Tessa Hadley, Fay Weldon, Celia Brayfield and Lucy English.

Austerity

My short stories will be part of an episodic novel with the theme of Austerity linking them.
Austerity for the poverty stricken village elder in Sierra Leone is quite different from the austerity measures felt by the engineer who has to give up one of his holiday homes.
Austerity is relative. are we all in it together?

My latest short story is set in a smart hotel which prides itself on its 'locally sourced' food. Many of the guests are exaggerations- based on our  'foody'  friends. However these guests  complain to the nth degree about the quality of a lettuce leaf or some such. Beware the character who doesn't fuss enough - he has an anaphylactic shock with dire consequences.
To be enjoyed and inwardly digested!

Cats!

Many of my stories involve cats. Some are black..the prince of colours. Others are  inpristine white but the blood on their whiskers shows they aren't saintly. One story called   ' Single Occupancy' involves alley cats having a 'High Noon' stand off.
The bedraggled cat on the front step - trying to get into the warmth-in 'My friend from Sierra Leone' represents the dispossessed, the civil war and exclusion.

Satire

My short story about 'Inspections'  is timely as tomorrow's front pages of the broadsheets show Gove in retreat.
See my new facebook page to read details of four of my short stories which gently lampoon the notion of  bureacracy, 'Austerity' and 'We're all in it together.'