The winners of the Slightly Foxed Subscribers’ Writing Competition have been contacted directly, and an announcement has been made in the editorial of Slightly Foxed Issue 58, Summer 2018.
The Slightly Foxed Writers’ Competition produced a record number of entries this year, all of them worth reading. Subjects tackled were many and various, from Dr Johnson to taxidermy, and we had such difficulty choosing a winner that we finally opted to award a joint first prize.
The two pieces we chose are very different, but both are examples of how books can change a life. One is Alastair Glegg’s account of being introduced to books at his prep school, where the masters instilled in him a love of words and encouraged him to become a real reader. It is affectionate and evocative, and led us to think of the difference between his experience and that of a child who is taught mechanically to decipher words on a page but is given no feel for the magic of reading – a lesson for our test-obsessed government. The other was Richard Crockatt’s elegant and thoughtful piece on the galvanizing effect of studying Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain at a particular moment in history and in his own life. Congratulations to them both. They will each receive £250 and we look forward to publishing their pieces.
Three others were also, we felt, worthy of publication and so as runners-up Janet Walkinshaw, Posy Fallowfield and Peter Radford will each receive £100 and see their pieces in SF in due course. Our thanks to everyone who entered.
With best wishes
Gail Pirkis & Hazel Wood
Editors, Slightly Foxed