Spectator Competition: Nursery crimes

Comp. 3347 invited you to write a hard-boiled nursery rhyme. This inevitably led many to think of Humpty Dumpty, hence his multiple appearances (the consensus is he didn’t fall, he was pushed). Philip Marlowe was smouldered at by various femmes fatales including Little Bo Peep and Miss Muffet. A special mention goes to David Silverman’s scandi-noir Måry Had a Little Lamb/Five Little Ducks: ‘D.I. Lund surveyed Nyhavn from the discomfort of an Ektorp chair. One candle lit the gloom, which was decidedly un-hyggelig.’

Some strayed from the brief enjoyably. The winners, printed below, get £25 each.

There was no ducking it: I had to go down to the woods today and boy, was I in for a big surprise. The rain was falling fast as a widow’s tears and twice as serious and I was dressed in tennis gear (I’d figured I’d better go in disguise). What I wouldn’t give for my gabardine mac.