Article Competition Results 2023

Our article competition was judged by Abhi Arumbakkam, a mother-of-two who is an independent artist with a Fellowship from Farnham Maltings, UK. She also works as Project Manager at Slough-based Resource Productions. Born and raised in India, Abhi has lived in the UK since 2003. She writes plays, makes documentary films and regularly sends off proposals for both in the hope of being commissioned. Her fingers are perennially crossed.  

Before revealing her comments and the winners, Abhi asked the group how they found the competition. All those who answered said they initially found it difficult – not knowing how to handle interviewing a dead person and how much fiction was allowed within the facts. They all enjoyed the challenge.

Abhi reminded the group of her brief – to imagine talking to an ancestor and painting a story of their life – include what you know and imagine how’d they react – capture their voice.

She said that all but one of the eight entries were about grandparents, probably because even if we’ve never met them, we will have heard our families talking about them.

The winners, left to right: Neil Dickinson (3rd), Abhi (judge), Lorraine Forrest-Turner (1st), Lee Taylor (2nd)

She said that, overall, she was very moved with the entries and often found herself in floods of tears. Her own grandmother had died young and that coming from India, with family so far away, she felt touched by the humanity in our articles. She felt that these were real people, even if the authors hadn’t met them.

She then ran through each story, praising the good writing and then saying why she felt some didn’t quite work for her. Mostly, this was due to the author reflecting and reminiscing rather presenting the person in their own voice. She made several references to wanting his/her story and hearing his/her voice. The winners captured that voice and spirit of the person being interviewed. She read out sections where the author had done this beautifully.

The winners were: 

First place – Lorraine Forrest-Turner with ‘Grunnie Grant’
Second place – Lee Taylor with ‘William Atkins’
Third place – Neil Dickinson with ‘Big Ben’
Commended – Linda Hurdwell with ‘Meeting Jane Lea’