My first creative writing tutor gave me three great pieces of advice. These were, writers write, writers read, and don’t bother writing short stories, because you’ll never get them published. And mostly I’ve taken her advice these last twenty years; but, inevitably, I have cracked now and again, especially in my early years as a writer. Short story specialists get annoyed if people say that short stories make great practise for a novel. And although I can see that it’s annoying, it’s nonetheless true.
So, here are three short stories, all written in the nineties.
‘A Period Home’ was written at the time it is set; that is to say, about three months after Blair came to power.
Both ‘The Coolest Guy I Know’ and ‘An Incomers Christmas in Wales’ are based partly in real events. I watched ‘Steve’ squirm as he was caught on the Tube by the well-heeled couple; and the horror that was the Kinnerrton Nativity Play of 1989 will stay with me forever.