



Both Sides of the Story
-
- $4.99
-
- $4.99
Publisher Description
Inspired by Phil Collins’ 1993 eponymous hit, I wrote this collection of four vignettes and a fifth piece to pull them together for a major UK short story writing competition in 1994.
The news at the time was full of stories about people for whom the public (including me) had little sympathy. I watched Collins’ Both Sides music video on MTV and wondered: Could I show both sides of the news in a short story?
After two solid weeks of late nights writing, I felt I had achieved the goal. However, my short story failed to make it past the first round of judging for the competition. The judge commended me on my “well written, ambitious and impressive piece of writing”. But he marked it down as “exceeding both the limits and rules of the genre.”
Twenty-five years later, in 2019, taking on the comments of the judge, I revisited and reworked Both Sides of the Story as a short story collection, which I published in 2020. Each vignette, Westminster, Bosnia, A Council Flat and The Gym, stands on its own, as does the final piece, Bad News.
But the collection can also be read as a whole, to help us follow Phil Collins’ lead and try to imagine both sides of the story.
My thanks, also, to Denise O'Hagan, Writer and Editor, and Publisher at Black Quill Press, for her much appreciated Foreword.
Robert Fairhead, Sydney 2020.