I was at Waterstones Piccadilly yesterday evening, when it acted as host to thirteen Salt authors who read extracts from their short stories to launch Salt Publishing’s Best of British Short Stories 2013 and Best of British Fantasy 2013. The event was very well attended by a lively and colourful crowd of Salt supporters. Each of the authors was introduced by Chris Hamilton-Emery, founder director of Salt, and all read their work with great feeling and panache; I loved listening to them. It is a little unfair of me, therefore, to pick a favourite, but I have to admit that I was blown away by Anneliese Mackintosh’s reading; she virtually acted her own contribution, a wryly humorous account verging on sadness about her experiences as a clueless and extremely badly supported PhD student. I’m sure that she’s an author we’ll be hearing much more about in the future.
These are two wonderful Salt collections! More details, including how to buy them, may be found on the Salt website.
Christina James, crime novelist 
A lovely way to spend an evening.
Hello, Anne! It really was. Lots of talent in one evening’s package. 🙂
How odd, I thought I’d commented here on this post. Christina, I like these portrait photos very much, especially the first one. Was that the girl who won the prize? If so, I can see the vibrancy in her face. Maybe that comes through in her writing too? As Anne says, a lovely way to spend an evening!
She certainly won my prize for impassioned delivery of her extract! But they were all accomplished and completely engaging. It was a wonderful event and well worth a train ride from Yorkshire.