Mostly Life Hall of Fame
Robert Wilton's attempts to pretend that he has a proper job continue to crumble. He persists meanwhile in using the fiction of a writing career as an excuse for idleness, misanthropy, and infrequent shaving. His short stories have won a range of prizes, and been variously published and performed. He is in parallel a writer and speaker on Balkan affairs, because it sounds better. He’s living in Pristina while working as a History Professor and an advisor to the Prime Minister of the newly-independent Republic of Kosova. A collection of short stories drawing on his experiences is due to appear shortly, once he's stopped faffing about.
Tracey Gilbert was born on a cold January morning, on the eighth floor of St Thomas’s hospital in London. She likes to think that her mother glanced out of the ward window and noted the time of her daughter’s birth on the clock face of Big Ben. She has been writing short stories for several years; many inspired by the streets she grew up in, in Waterloo. Tracey's work has been published on line by Tales of the Decongested. Last year a short story idea kept growing, and now she is working on a novel.
Ben Langley lives in Cambridgeshire with his wife and two children. He has had short stories published online and in print magazines, and has had comedy sketches broadcast on a late night ITV comedy show. He is currently trying to maintain focus to rewrite a sitcom and get beyond the opening chapters of a novel that has been taking up too much space in his head for quite some time.
India Farquharson-Smithers is the same age as Demi Moore, but there the similarity ends. She lives near the Tyne with her husband, daughter and two cats. For two days a week (which is all her colleagues can stand) she works as a secretary. The rest of the time you’ll find her ducking and diving around supermarkets, and failing to pair socks. She uses copious amounts of ‘Colour Run Remover’, loves pork pies and adores that fizzy wine fermented and bottled in France (although she’ll drink it from any country). She can’t stand burnt toast.
Vicki Jarrett wrote a couple of short stories in the late 90s and they were broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio 4. This early success was so disconcerting she didn’t finish anything else for a very long time. She lives in Edinburgh with her partner and young twins and earns a living writing software manuals. One day she will stitch together the million little pieces of unfinished writing stuffed in her cupboards to make a masterpiece. Really.
Kevin Wilson has been writing for a living since he left school to become a newspaper journalist. Though he has changed career several times since then, writing remains his first love. Apart from his wife and dog, of course. A new book, The Isle of Kevin, is in production, but this is nothing to do with the fact that he lives on the Isle of Wight. When Kevin is not writing, he's either reading, walking the dog, or riding his motorbike. Or sleeping. His ambition is not to grow up.
Nigel Macarthur is forty-two, and was born in Scotland. He now lives in London and has had a great many jobs, although most past employers would deny ever knowing him. He has contributed to various magazines here and in the USA, and won the Mona Schreiber Prize in 2006. He hopes one day to be a successful anything whatsoever, although preferably a writer, since he sings so badly that even his miming is out-of-tune. He has two degrees and is currently doing a third one in a desperate attempt to get his career on track.
Sally Quilford has been writing since 1995, but has only really been trying since 2002. Unsurprisingly she didn’t have much published at the start. Since she put some effort into her writing, she has appeared in over a dozen anthologies, including Leaf Books’ The Dogstar And Other Science Fiction Stories, as well as being published in several British newspapers and magazines. Though born in Wales, she lives in Derbyshire, where her husband, and four West Highland White terriers hamper her attempts to write by demanding food and cuddles. You can find out more about Sally and her work at http://www.sallyquilford.co.uk
At the age of five, Gearalt MacAodha’s first trilogy, I am a Pirate/Bear/Crocodile, earned him a gold star. Encouraged by this early success he attempted a sequel in which the crocodile eats both the bear and the pirate. This did not achieve the same critical acclaim. Discouraged, he turned away from writing for half a century and only now feels able to expose his work to public criticism once more. In the intervening period he taught lots of young people, listened to lots of music, drank lots of beer and told lots of stories to anyone who would listen.
Sally Wild lives and works in London.
Christopher Parry Christopher Parry may be the most exciting new writing talent to emerge in many years, but it's hard to tell because he doesn't get published all that often. He lives in London and works for the Government, occasionally. His interests include puzzles, horses, and log fires in quiet sleepy inns.
