"Snapshots" (Angela Royal Publishing, 1999)

10 years of stories from The Ian St James Awards - a yearly story competition for unestablished writers. Stories from Kate Atkinson, Julia Darling, Louise Doughty. Michel Faber, Tobias Hill, etc. Most of the stories have a non-neutral narrative voice. The descriptions below end with "Yes" if I like the story, "No" if I don't.

• "Exposed" (Lorna Fergusson) - Miss Leonie Gosling, who had late-onset dyslexia, found brief fame as a poet before dying at 37. She wrote things like The moaning teaser/ Fainting in the groove (meaning "The Mona Lisa painting in the Louvre"). In the 2nd part of the story, Carl Bayer, a fan, has come from the States to her quaint UK home village. He meets 2 academics. While touring the poet's house he realises that she had deliberatedly hoodwinked the academics - Emporer's New Clothes. I thought that she might have been murdered by her family before she confessed so that they'd be assured royalties. I thought the 2 academics might try to trick Bayer into contributing to buying her papers. No
• "Ellie" (Judy Forshaw) - The somewhat chatty narrator, Marsi, a black women who for 20 years has been a cleaner at a Catholic boarding school for girls, is a non-believer with a low opinion of nuns, but is Mother Louis' best friend. She had a brother Frank, who threw himself from a 13th floor balcony. A new girl, Ellie, arrives. She's 8 years old and unruly. Mother Louis falls/collapses on the stairs. Ellie falls/collapses at the announcement of her death and has to stay locked up in the school infirmary. Mother Louis' replacement tells Marsi that her services are no longer required. She secretly visits Ellie, who's standing on the window ledge. They both see Frank as an angel. He has consoling news from Mother Louis. Yes
• "Mardy" (Elizabeth Harris) - It's 1946 in a village near Cambridge. John, the middle-aged first person narrator, was injured in the war. He lives alone, doing gardening and the Times crossword. A young, naive woman, Mardy, gets off the bus. He's civil to her. She's just received her birth certificate (in her mother's will) and wants to discover more about her biological parents. Each day she takes the bus to Cambridge, returning to tell John the developments. He quickly falls in love. She discovers that her mother was a prostitute and leaves. 5 years later he still misses her. I wonder if he could have been her father? The father's name on the birth certificate might be a clue. Yes.
• "Across the border" (Denis Sexton) - Liam (a teacher), Pauline and baby Ronan are driving in Northern Ireland heading for the border after a family event. They've a few bottles of spirit hidden the cot. We learn about differences between the two countries - pot-holes, alcohol, condoms, etc. At an army checkpoint he gets stroppy while the soldiers are kind to Pauline and baby. Pauline's irritated by her husband's petulance. There's an OCR typo on p,67 - "he revved it loudly to dear the carburetor". Maybe
• "A Whore's Vengeance" (Louise Doughty) - Abigail was born in 1675 in Salem. After her parents died she was taken in by farmers, raped by the father. She escapes to Boston, to a brothel which survives by giving money to the Church and having a Bible in every room. John ends up being hung.
• "Small Beginnings" (Faith Addis) - It's 1942. London. David and Liz, both 6, play imaginatively together. They stay in touch even when their families move apart. After National Service he sells ideas and she designs fashions. They're well off. They live in a converted lorry. They have twins, but they turn out to be boring - credits to their schools then respectable grown-ups. David and Liz do a long world tour. When they return they visit their little grandson for the first time. He's interesting! A jolly piece with a fairly predictable ending.
• "French Kisses" (Alan Dunn) - A picaresque, entertaining romp whose ending I'd roughly guessed. Yes.
• "Me and Renate" (Stephanie Ellyne) - Jail-bait girl and older man (his PoV) car-jack exploitable male drivers. She's started routinely killing the drivers. Their most recently stolen car has a girl's body in the boot. He's having second thoughts.
• "A Dark Circle" (Sylvia Baker) - The first person female is in a coroner's court. She thinks back to her childhood - top in a special school (speaking issues). She got a burgerbar job, saved up, met Joe and quickly married. Joe spent her money on drink and women. They had a child. Reading between the lines, it looks like she started a fire which killed her baby - deliberately, to hurt Joe in the only way she knew. No.
• "Good at Things" (Francasca Clementis) - Southend, 1993. Multiple PoV, each section (often only a paragraph) started with a character's name: Catherine (37, the main breadwinner until she turns to street-juggling), Alex (husband, had an affair); Jenny (15); and younger David. Their savings soon disappear. She's arrested for not having a street permit. Then she wins some competitions as an alternative feminist comedian. Alex loses his job (betrayed by lover) and goes freelance. In the end he does ok, she goes back to a normal job and the couple make up. The children meanwhile have broadened their outlooks and interests. No.
• "Karmic Mothers - Fact or Fiction!" (Kate Atkinson) - Agnes, 14, wakes on the suicide ward. She'd hoped for a rebirth. "Jeannie and Agnes were the only patients on the suicide ward. This was due not to a shortage of suicides, but the relocation of the old suicide ward to the new hospital. Jeannie and Agnes remained, leftover suicides, in an old side ward of the maternity wing (the maternity department wasn't due to move for another month yet although the occasional body got sent on ahead by mistake). ... The suicide staff had, naturally, moved to the new hospital along with the suicides, so Agnes and Jeannie were looked after by midwives". Yes.
• "The Spirit of the Times" (Jude Jones) - A girl, 14, meets an old woman and her men-friends (Foreman, Ringman, Longman) on the edge of town. Are they spirits of nature? They're coarse, rough. The woman has the power to make people compliant and helps the girl, giving her the power too. The old woman says she's the spirit of the times. She become pregnant. At the end the super-naturalism seems to end. There's a news article about a girl dying in the hands of Satanists - New Age Travellers. I presume the news story is untrue in the world-view of the story. Yes.
• "Moira Flaherty" (Juliet McCarthy) - The "I" (a rather naive girl) and her mother are on holiday in a Dublin hotel when they see a honeymoon couple - a young girl, Moira, and much older man. This encourages the mother to tell her daughter about her unhappy marriage for the first time. I thought this story was going to work, but it became too prosaic.
• "Magdalen" (Alison Armstrong) - A female prisoner only has contact with "Brodie", who sexually exploits her. She's losing touch with reality. There's a painting of Magdalen on her wall. After hearing an altercation outside, she hears gunshot. A new lover arrives wearing suits from the same place as Bridies's. Maybe the son. Yes.
• "A is for Axe" (Mike McCormack) - Abcedarian. Each section heading begins with a new letter. Set in rural Ireland. After the narrator's father wins the National Lottery and uses all the money to build an alcoholic recovery clinic, the narrator kills him with an axe. No,
• "The Welfare of the Patient" (Anna McGrail) - The 3rd person protagonist (Mrs Talbot - the angel of death?) visits a terminal male in hospital. No.
• "Football in Busanze Camp" (Dick Bayne) - Only 3 pages - much shorter than the other pieces. "Swedi and Juma, my brothers, are dead too ... She told me they played football with Swedi's head ... The soldiers cut it off with their pangas and started kicking it. They made Father join inl He had to take a penalty, and when he missed they shot him". No.
• "Barcelona" (Jonathan Carr) - The narrator, 23, is flying back from Barcelona after a holiday with his father - bonding holiday suggested by the father. The plane's engines have broken. It'll be a controlled crash-landing. The father's recently learnt that the narrator's gay. The narrator remembers how his father tried (pretended?) to pick up 2 women while they were in the hotel bar. He recalls his last, inconsequential, meeting with his mother. They survive the landing. His father says "Well, I told you we'd be all right. This was all right." The son hugs him.
• "Strange Weather" (Maria Caruso) - Cassie (1st person) is on the US farm all day with Steven who his mother (10 years older) married when Cassie's father died. Then her mother died. Steven's a bad farmer, and Cassie's old enough to have wanton longings. Steven wants to sell up. Their relationship is tense.
• "Officer Shenstone's Nigger" (Douglas Galbraith) - In a small US town a policeman tries to help a vagrant of colour who's suddenly appeared. He's the only non-white in the town - Shenstone had got rid of the others. Next morning the vagrant is found dead, hung. It's unclear who killed him and whose fault it was. Perhaps Shenstone had only got rid of the non-whites to keep the townsfolk quiet. Perhaps, through guilt, he gave $5 towards getting the newcomer a job, but his guilt-money was rejected? Yes.
• "Expect Jail" (Nick Kelly) - A couple married for 31 years are on the Picadilly Line. They have 2 grown kids. He didn't cope well with retirement. Alicia knew he wouldn't. To perk up their sex life his wife flashes at strangers on trains, with him beside her. Their final victim turns out to be a plain clothes policeman who admires them, letting them off with a caution. No.
• "Ground No More" (Hwee Hwee Tan) - A Singapore kid living in The Hague kills another and then studies in Cambridge. No.
• "The Window-cleaners of Bjec" (Phil Whitaker) - A jeep-load of journalists is heading for Srenica. The first-person protagonist misses Sue, a BBC TV reporter. He thinks they're separating. He's a lesser freelancer. They stop in a town a film a competition between political prisoners where most of them die. He feel awkward about it. Sue sees it on TV and phone him. Definitely yes.
• "Algebra" (Josephine Corcoran) - Anna and the first-person narrator have a child they call Angel. At puberty she becomes a boy. There's a fable feel to the piece. No.
• "Last Days of the Asylum" (Julia Darling) - An enthusiastic young therapist attempts to improve the lives of 3 mental patients (the story's from one of their points-of-view, first person). They're not all grateful. No.
• "Losing Track" (Tobias Hill) - The narrator, a closet poet who works in a Las Vegas casino, is entranced by a beautiful customer, then is killed because he sees a colleague embezzle. The plot components don't really hold together, but I like the atmosphere and writing. Yes.
• "Gathering" (Carrie Worrall) - Two male friends and a younger sister (student-age) of one of them hike to a sacred spot through sheep-farming land. The men have to leave her behind when she feels ill. A ewe evades the collecting of the hillside sheep. There's a thunderstorm. A sheep-dog owner finds the scared girl rather than the ewe, and takes her back to the pub. We get episodes from the viewpoint of various characters, including farmers.
• "Do You Like Oranges?" (Kevin Doyle) - The Irish 1st person narrator (male) met Ricardo (Chilean) in the Torture Victims Rehab Centre, Melbourne, Australia. They discussed whether to return to their countries and take revenge. After Ricardo kills himself, the protagonist returns. Scenes alternate between the timelines. He finds his torturer, Coughlan, a contraversial widower. The ending, though good, is telegraphed.
• "Dead Man's Shoes" (David Evans) - Anne, a rich 40-ish, childless widow in South Africa (Mandela's just become president) is suitored by older men only trying to help. Once the boss is mentioned, part of the plot is telegraphed. Once the shoes appear (a neat idea), the rest of the plot is. No.
• "Some Rain Must Fall" (Michel Faber) - Frances, a young female, starts teaching a class of young kids after some crisis with their previous teacher. She quickly, ably, learns about each child, helping them to cope with the trauma. Her relationship with her partner is in crisis too - he doesn't want a child with her. We learn that the previous teacher was shot in front of the class by a jealous husband. The story ends with 'It'll be all right, angel,' Frances purred, 'Everything will be all right'.