Sea Defences

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I’ve always looked on the wordcount limit as a friend. Cutting words tightens up the prose, and I find my stories are always better after surgery. It’s become a bit of a cliché, but do you need those adverbs, those qualifiers, those extra adjectives? In any writing, but particularly in short fiction, if you can make a word do several jobs, all the better. Words have more than a simple meaning. They have associations, sound, rhythm. They conjure up images, emotions, memories. Make them count – a new meaning to ‘wordcount’! Winning a prize in the BSSA was brilliant! Thank you to the readers and to Euan Thorneycroft, the judge, and to Ad Hoc Fiction for publishing the anthology. I wrote the story some months before I entered the competition, and had already started work on turning it into a novel. So, no, Euan’s comments didn’t prompt me, but they did confirm that it was a good idea.

In her taut, lyrical debut novel, Hilary Taylor weaves the bleak power of the East Anglian winter into a searingly honest psychological drama, as gripping as any thriller. Art Club at Gainsborough Community Library A heartbreaking exploration of grief and faith, with undercurrents of unease and intrigue, this is a tender, poignant and compassionate literary thriller' Philippa East Mumma” (l. 4) instead of mom. The fact that he dropped out of school four years early, still lives with his Poetry in prose. Written with warmth and wit, this astutely observed study in grief is balanced by an exploration of faith, friendship and love' - Fiona Erskine

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Join us for a film screening of 'Manatomy' by James McDermott on Sunday 26 February at Ipswich County Library, followed by a Q&A with James and performances of his new poetry! This event is part of LBGTQIA+ History Month at Ipswich County Library. Beautifully written and structurally perfect, each character goes on a journey and is changed by it. I cared about every single one of them and was completely invested in each rich story. not fit in. Whether it is because that person has a physical disability, a mental disability, or is just generally

I did think hard about this because I’m not someone who swears, and I do have a threshold where I, too, find it off-putting in literature and drama. Mary’s ‘mild’ swearing is very much part of her character. She is forthright, rather grumpy and generally cross with most people. The other swearing, and there isn’t much, happens when the characters have been brought to extremes of emotion, and their inhibitions are gone. Kendall has struggled with hunger ever since she can remember – hunger for bread, yes, but also for community and for the ability to ‘taste and see’ the goodness of God. In her upcoming book, By Bread Alone, she weaves her own faith-filled journey together with original recipes and stories about the role of bread in church history, revealing a God who draws near to us and creatively provides for our daily needs.

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mother as a middle-aged man, and the following quotation from the text also adds to this assumption

Rachel never stopped loving the sea. Even after it happened. The need to blame someone consumed her, but she never blamed the sea. Poetry in prose. Written with warmth and wit, this astutely observed study in grief is balanced by an exploration of faith, friendship and love’ It's fascinating how so many different emotions we can feel and how some, like guilt, can affect our lives. This isn't a book I would have read in the normal course of events but a publicist whose judgement I respect tempted me to have a look. I'm so glad that he did and I can't wait to see what Taylor writes next. The short story of the same title (published in the Bath Short Story Award Anthology 2018) is told from Adam’s point of view, focusing on his perception of events. The parents of the missing child are mentioned only in one line. When I thought about turning it into a novel, my first question was: “Who is the mother and what impact does this event have on her life?” If she was not only Christian, but in training for the priesthood, this would give me the opportunity to explore how the experience could affect her faith, as well as her family relationships. Once I realised that the emotional heart of the novel was to be found in Rachel’s story, this became the driving force of the book.Christopher agreed to collect Hannah. ‘No problem,’ he said. No one at his school stayed late on a Friday. the price. But they never do.” (ll. 32-33). This quotation shows that Michael feels the need to be comforted When do you stop feeling guilty for a crime you didn’t commit, and how do you comfort that feeling of guilt? people do not see the good in what he is doing – just like he does. This makes Michael a partially unreliable

You recently discovered that the same prize winning short story, Sea Defences, has been used in a Danish exam syllabus and there is an analysis of it available in English, online. It must have been quite a surprise. What did you think of the analysis? Mary refuses to face reality whether it is her failing eyesight or the slow erosion of her land by the sea. She gives poor advice to her teenage son Adam. He interprets everything literally and his point of view is one of the delights of this novel. Lightning Books has secured Sea Defences, the "lyrical" debut novel from retired teacher Hilary Taylor.Hilary Taylor's short story "Defense at Sea" (2018) is a funny story that focuses on how guilt affects life. We got to know this guy named Michael and what it was not his fault he had a lot of guilt. Ideal for reading during Lent or a season of waiting, By Bread Aloneoffers a testimony of struggling with God but never letting go. It invites us to name our hungers for God and community built on his love. Kendall reveals that when we break bread together, whether at the Communion table or the kitchen table, we are both fed and taught to hunger for God’s healing work in the world. Enjoy an evening of folk music, poems and songs at Woodbridge Library on Thursday 23 February by local duo Claudia Myatt and Julia Dansie, who play guitar and harp!