I enjoy writing short stories, and they have appeared in many anthologies. My first story for an anthology, published in Constable’s annual Winter’s Tales, was Near Forelander’s Kop, set in South Africa, which was praised in the Literary Review as “a peach of a story.” I published one every year in Winter’s Tales throughout its 11 years, plus stories in Serpent’s Tail and other anthologies, and magazines.
One of my stories, Sehr Schon, was runner up in the V.S. Pritchett Award for short stories of 2012. About a woman trying to connect with her mother’s past, Jane Gardam commented on the setting: “Vienna’s decadence oozes out in cream and chocolate and plush and guns upon the page.” I have gathered a number of my stories, with the aim of publishing them as a collection. They include, among others, Smelling of Roses, a story with a vampiric twist; Le Plaisir du Chef, a cautionary tale for foodies; Adultery for Beginners, in which a painting by Toulouse-Lautrec plays a part; Love and Death in Renaissance Italy, a revenge story of past and present; plus several new unpublished works.
