I am thrilled, honoured and generally cock-a-hoop to have been shortlisted for the Society of Authors’ ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award! The news has been a gorgeous burst of sunshine in these strange days.

The Tom Gallon Award celebrates single short stories and runs alongside other prizes such as the Betty Trask Prize for novels and the Eric Gregory Award for poetry. This year’s judges are the brilliant Michèle Roberts and Stuart Evers.

My story, ‘High Water’, is keeping company with some great talent in this year’s shortlist: Lynda Clark, Ani Kayode Somtochukwu, Diana Powell, Wendy Riley and Catriona Ward. Previous winners and runners-up include two of my most loved short-story writers: Carys Davies and Lucy Wood.

Sadly, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no awards ceremony in London this year, but there will be an online bash on the 18th June. Looking forward to it. In the meantime, I’m just hanging out with that sunshine…