All the People Were Mean and Bad - Lucy Caldwell (winner)
All the People Were Mean and Bad follows a woman's journey on a transatlantic flight with her 21-month old baby. During the flight, her daughter is reading Noah’s Ark which is where the phrase ‘all the people were mean and bad’ stems from. This particular phrase is what sparks an interesting conversation with a fellow passenger about life, grief and missed opportunities.

What I loved most about this story was how our main character analyses her own life through both internal dialogue and dialogue with the other passenger. Dealing with the loss of a family member, she questions whether her relationship with her husband is everything she wants/needs and I found it really interesting that the author, Lucy Caldwell, uses the stranger and particularly, the kindness of the stranger, to help our protagonist think about her missed opportunities and perhaps how different her life would look had she chosen a different path. A common question I’m sure we’ve all asked ourselves at some point in our lives, and one which we can certainly empathise with.


The Body Audit - Rory Gleeson
The Body Audit took me by surprise as I ended up enjoying it much more than I expected. The story is about a group of young lads at a residential camp who have a slightly out-of-the-ordinary tradition of reviewing each boy’s body. Each boy is called up and stands in front of the group whilst the older boys in the group talk through each part of their body, examining and assessing the teenage bodies in front of them. However, there is one boy, Greg, who is dreading the ritual more than anyone else because he is incredibly ashamed of his body; so much so, it’s left him feeling suicidal on some days.

Yet this story isn’t about body shaming, it’s about body positivity. I think so often we can assume that issues around body image only affect women but this story reminds us that men suffer from body shaming too. The short story explores the ways in which men and especially young, teenage boys are led to believe that the ‘ideal man’ has a chiselled physique, a strong jaw line and a good head of hair. Yet bodies come in all shapes and sizes. Each body is unique and should therefore be celebrated. And in this lovely short story, author Rory Gleeson does just that.


Night Train - Georgina Harding
Night Train gave me all the Agatha Christie vibes. The story follows a retired woman, Alice, who is taking her first trip on her own following the death of her mother. Her mother’s last wish was to have a ‘real life’ and so our protagonist lives out her mother’s dream by taking the sleeper train from Kyiv to Lviv in the Ukraine. During this trip, she meets the fabulous Irina, who she shares her train compartment with. Through Irina, she learns about the reality of war and the effects it has had on the Ukrainian population. The difference in experiences allows Alice to look back on her childhood and her relationship with her mother, and how these experiences have shaped her.

I found this story not only great escapism because it allowed me to feel like I was on a sleeper train travelling through the Ukraine, but I also found it beautifully heart-warming and heart-breaking at the same time. You can really feel that Alice is a little lost, wondering how she got this old in what seemed like such a short period of time. She seems a little lost and not just because she is in a foreign country. You empathise with her because I’m sure we’ve all felt similar to Alice before and needed some time away to find what it is that makes you you again. Yet doing that whilst coming to terms with the death of a family member makes everything even harder, which Georgina Harding depicts beautifully.


Toadstone - Danny Rhodes
I listened to Toadstone whilst out on a walk around my local country park and it was very fitting for my swampy, muddy walk. The story starts with our awkward and lonely protagonist who is waiting for a potential cancer diagnosis. This time gives him time to reflect on how he has lived his life and how the men in his family have come and gone. It is also peak ‘toading’ season, so he returns to his childhood hometown to help his parents and local community group in saving toads from being killed on the road joining his town with the other towns. It is during this experience, that our character learns about the magic healing powers of toad stones which can be found under the eyes of toads.

I really enjoyed this story as it really explored family, ageing and similarly to All The People Were Mean and Bad, missed opportunities. The pending cancer diagnosis adds an extra layer of worry and sadness to our protagonist’s story and we can’t help but want to shake him and tell him to live his life the way he wants, the way he’s always wanted. It was quite a deep and emotional story, with moments of humour and satire that in the true British way, make the moments of sadness not quite so sad.


Maykopsky District, Adyghe Oblast - Richard Smyth
I have to say that personally I found Maykopsky District, Adyghe Oblast quite difficult to follow. The story was inspired by Richard Smyth’s delve into the archives of the academic journal ‘Environmental History’ where he discovered historical information on ‘The Great Stalin Plan for the Transformation of Nature’. The story features a group of Russian scientists and officers and within the narrative conjures a world of Soviet scheming, subterfuge and suspicion that underpins a story about the power of nature, humanity and human connection.

I guess perhaps the reason I didn’t enjoy this as much as the other four stories was because it is written in report/diary format and as an audiobook, it was difficult to envisage. However, I have a slight inkling that this might actually be the winning story as includes a huge bit about moths, which actually feature on the front cover of this year’s anthology, so maybe it’s worth a re-read!