Spectator competition winners: ‘The mother of all horrors, what a comp’ (or Shakespearean characters hiding in sonnets)

This fiendishly difficult challenge, to submit a sonnet with the name of a Shakespearean character hidden in each line, pulled in a gratifyingly bumper haul of entries – from old hands and newcomers alike. The odd one or two described it as ‘fun’, but many were considerably less keen – C. Paul Evans, for example: ‘The mother of all horrors, what a comp,/ A theme to turn my ashy locks to dust!…’ It dawned on me, as I read your sonnets, that there were different ways of interpreting the brief. Martin Broomfield took a cryptic approach; others an anagrammatic one. The ambiguity was my fault, and I gave equal consideration to all. While the shoehorning in of names occasionally led to some stilted lines, there were bursts of remarkable fluency too. In an entry full of witty touches and inventive flourishes, commendations go to David Silverman, Chris O’Carroll, Jan Snook and Julia Griffin; a prize of £20 belongs to each of those printed below.

Basil Ransome-Davies In Machu Picchu and at other sites We globetrotted, our future bright and clear, Our love synonymous with life’s delights, Devoid of anger, jealousy and fear.