Stories of modern-day fairy tales and folklore, were among the winners of a short story competition run during the months spent under the infamous ’lockdown’.

The ’Lockdown Fiction’ short story competition, organised by Manx Litfest and sponsored by ManSat, saw 35 writers from all over the island enter one of two categories - an open genre and one for modern day Manx fairy tales - with five winners being chosen from each group.

The winners of the open genre included Vicky Lloyd-West, with her topically-inspired story ’Lockdown’,

Norman McGregor Edwards with ’Home Run’, Gemma Quilliam with ’When the Busy Cares Have Flown’, Angela Roberts with her timely ’Love in the Time of Corona’ and Gemma Varnom with ’Ghost Light’.

The winners of the Manx folklore competition were Liz Boakes with her story ’Orry and The Old Man’,

Rachel Frankwick with ’The Changeling’, Polly Hughes with ’The Enemy Outside’,

Tia Welsh with her tale ’The Sea Bell’ and a second prize for Angela Roberts with her rewriting of the fairy tale ’A Lazy Wife’.

The competition was judged by a team of Manx Litfest writers, including author Elizabeth Brooks.

’It was a privilege to help judge the competition,’ said Elizabeth.

’There is an amazing richness of imagination and talent on our island, which really came into its own during lockdown.

’Special congratulations to the winners, of course, but hooray for all the other entrants as well, for turning to creativity during such a dark and scary time.’

One aspect of the competition was for the writers of each entry to have their stories retained and recorded by the Manx Museum as a reminder of how the Isle of Man got through the early days of the pandemic.

Archivist Wendy Thirkettle is collecting and archiving written records of how people in the island lived through the pandemic, either through autobiographical accounts.

The invitation is still open to hear from anyone writing down their first-hand experiences of lockdown and personal reflections on the impact of the ongoing pandemic,’ said Wendy.

’These can be submitted to [email protected]’.

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers