Competition | 16 July 2011

Lucy Vickery presents this week’s Competition

In Competition No. 2704 you were invited to submit extracts from a less than happy literary collaboration between male and female contemporaries where the joints clearly show. D.A. Prince (Orwell/Wodehouse) and Bill Greenwell (D.H. Lawrence/Pam Ayres) impressed but strayed from the brief. The winners, in a strong field, are printed below  and earn £25 each. Adrian Fry nabs £30.

Full dim of day, a barn, dimmer yet. Within, figures idle.
‘’S not my fault it’s such a bloomin’ miserable day,’ William told his Outlaws.
In the course of that interminable morning, they’d played at being cowboys, soldiers, gladiators and spies. Played at being, found it wanting, yet somehow still were. They had tried cards and marbles, but both had caused only quarrelsome disputation of the rules.
‘You don’t know what to play next, do you, William?’ said Violet-Elizabeth Bott, slyly.
‘Actually, I do,’ said a flustered William, feeling all Outlaw eyes upon him.