Spectator competition winners: 21st-century Gothic short stories

The spark for the latest challenge — to write a short story in the Gothic style with a topical twist — came from the recent reopening of Strawberry Hill House and Garden, the neo-Gothic creation of Horace Walpole, whose 1764 chiller The Castle of Otranto is regarded as the first Gothic novel. Russell Clifton deployed the framing device, updated for contemporary sensibilities: ‘Gathered about the campfire that October evening in Lark Wood, someone suggested we tell horror stories. Trigger warnings were issued, several group members adjourning to the designated safe space of a distant clearing…’ And Sally Fiery imagined the genesis of a 21st-century Frankenstein-like creature: ‘The Doctor …had never expected to create life from those hastily assembled body parts, the fleshy limbs, unruly hair…’. The spirits of Shelly, Poe and Stoker hovered over an agreeably spooky entry, in which Paul Freeman, Frank Upton and Richard Corcoran stood out but were narrowly outflanked by the winners, printed below, who pocket £30 each.

Adrian Fry Over dinner at Castle Echt, the Duke entertains, enumerating the resident ghosts.