Every year Fish Publishing at Durrus near Bantry in Co. Cork in Ireland runs a short story competition with cash and other prizes leading to the publication of an anthology of winning stories. The anthology is normally named after the overall winning entry, so this year's collection is entitled Franklin's Grace and Other Stories. Clem Cairns edits the anthology and organizes the competition which is judged by an international panel led this year by the writer Christopher Hope. My story Letting Go was placed second overall this year and my other entry Collateral Damage reached the final short list, so I found myself this June attending a very impressive award ceremony and book launch in the amazing Bantry House stately home on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean at Bantry Bay in the County Cork. I had the opportunity to meet many of the other lucky writers as well as some of the organizers and judges of the competition. On the actual launch day the weather was kind and we all had a marvelous time both inside and in the grounds of the stunning venue, where about a hundred people listened to a brief reading from a selection of the winning entries. Afterwards, as you might expect, a pint or two was downed at a local hostelry and many new friendships were forged. I have never before had the experience of having strangers coming up to me in the street and saying that they liked my story or enjoyed my reading, and predictably I had major difficulty getting my head through the aircraft door in order to fly home.

Bantry is a small picturesque sea port on the south west coast of Ireland. The venue for the award ceremony and book launch, Bantry House, is a magnificent (though relatively recent) mansion which was at the time providing a simultaneous home for a chamber music festival and several art exhibitions, as well as a wedding reception a few hours before we arrived!

Bantry Harbour