Annual National Writing Competition

(Featured at the Bishop Auckland Town Hall)

2003 BATH Novel Competition
The judges were Sharon Griffiths, Elizabeth Gill, and Wendy Robertson (Chair).

General Report

We had more than 240 entries this year from as far afield as Somerset and Edinburgh, with a sprinkling from abroad. In the main, the writers met the discipline of presenting a synopsis and a thousand words of text. The problem of synopsis – crucial when trying to pitch a novel to an agent or publisher – rather escaped some of the entrants. A synopsis is a strange animal. The best of them escaped the egregious drama of the blurb or the plodding determinism of an outline and focussed on the essence of the novel – the reason for us to come to grips with the whole concept, the idiosyncrasy of the novel, the originality and the readability of the writer. One problem for the judges, however, did occur where the writer presented a wonderful synopsis, but the writing did not come up to scratch, and vice versa – a rather mundane synopsis supported by some wonderful writing.

We commented on the fact that these days there seemed to be  a good deal of competent, well-worked writing, perhaps influenced by widespread attendance at workshops and critical writing groups which impel writers to present clean prose as a vehicle for their ideas. Such is the baseline from which we may now judge these examples of work.

In the end, we were driven to think that after valuing a good writing style and a coherent synopsis, what we most yearned to see on the page was that spark of originality, that tendency to surprise that makes a novel – however familiar some of the themes – unique to that writer. These qualities are rather thinner on the ground than the basic writing competence mentioned above. The winners and the writers in the commended group all displayed some of the qualities we longed for.

WINNERS

FIRST PRIZE:
No Expectations: Mrs Joe’s Story - Prue Heathcote
An original story springing out of the Dickens character ‘Mrs Joe’ from Great Expectations. This is a brave, ambitious idea supported by atmospheric writing and a good ‘voice.’

JOINT SECOND PRIZE:
(a) Black September -Darren Wheatley
A taut thriller inspired by the twin towers disaster in New York. It is very tightly written; economic, full of tension, moving between points of view and locations in a very assured, filmic fashion.

JOINT SECOND PRIZE:
(b) The Reading Room - Theresa Robson
An interesting idea which would sit well within the saga genre but which, like the best novels in that genre, has hidden depths and contemporary resonance – the particular resonance here being the magical empowerment delivered by literacy and access to the world of the imagination. In it, reading is seen as a subversive activity. It is a big idea but the writing is up to it.

THIRD PRIZE:
The Lifeboat - Richard Hakin
An adventurous novel that has the documentary atmosphere of a true story where a lifeboat is carried overland to affect a rescue. The drama of the elements are in counterpoint with the emotional drama in people’s lives. The power of the original, true narrative could overwhelm a writer’s ambition to render it as fiction but here the writer’s own passion for the sea shows through in the writing and adds energy to the static, received story.

As well as this, entries by the following writers were considered highly by the judges:

(In no particular order)
Kerry McDermott, BE Roberts, Maggie North, Norma Handly, Judy Strachan, Sue Lord, PD Marchant, Eileen Elgey, Bernie Crosthwaite

We would encourage all the writers mentioned here to complete their novels.