Fill the frame

In competition No. 2453 you were given beginning and ending words and invited to supply a short story within them.

The given words were the opening and closing sentences of a story by V. S. Pritchett entitled ‘The Evils of Spain’, with one small difference: owing to a misprint, Pritchett’s ‘Angel’, a male, became our ‘Angela’. 

It contains a delightful moment: ‘The proprietor said: “M’sieu, whether you were drowned or not drowned this morning you are about to be roast. The hotel is on fire.’’’

Commendations to Alanna Blake, Patrick O’Byrne and Richard Ellis. The prize-winners, printed below, get £25 each and the bonus fiver is awarded to G. M. Davis.

We took our seats at the table. There were seven of us. First time I’d been in the same room as Mandelson and the German chancellor. Chirac had sent some epicurean lackey, there were two sleepy Italians and a Spaniard who smelt of hair oil.