My short story ‘Emergency’ has reached the shortlist for The RA and Pin Drop Short Award 2017. I’m thrilled.

The award is a collaboration between Pin Drop Studio and the Royal Academy of Arts that celebrates the short-story form. This is wonderful enough. Even more wonderfully, they celebrate the short story off the page—as a spoken, heard, live event. Storyteller and listeners gather around the fire (or, in this case, in a palatial room in the RA).

Each year a special guest narrates the winning story at the RA.The live reading is also made into a podcast to join Pin Drop’s fantastic archive. Previous readers include Stephen Fry and Juliet Stevenson. This year’s narrator is the mellifluous Penelope Wilton.

And so, I look forward to the awards ceremony on 23 June at the RA. Please do come on the night, if you’re around. Live short-story readings are a glorious thing.