Short Fiction Prize Win For Chiswick Writer
James Thellusson picks up the 2020 Sandstone Press award
James Thellusson. Picture: Twitter
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Chiswick resident James Thellusson has won a short fiction prize for a piece inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the elderly.
He was given the 2020 Sandstone Press for his story ‘An Epidemic of Kindness [redacted]’.
The piece takes the form of a letter from the carer to her mother, reminiscent of letters from the first world war trenches. It envisages a future in which government carers are billeted with the elderly and the vulnerable.
Sandstone Press judge Dan Brotzel described the piece as ‘dystopian’ and ‘sinister’. The Sandstone citation states: “Our winning story takes a different view of ‘kindness’. In this dystopian satire – a partially redacted dispatch from a carer on the frontline of a world with many unnerving echoes of our own – the epidemic has become an enduring fixture of life, the elderly are subject to news censorship and coercive caring, and the phrase ‘Kindness Services’ has a very sinister meaning.”
James said: ‘I am delighted to have won the Sandstone prize. At my age winning an egg and spoon race is exciting. The story was provoked by the impact Covid is having on the elderly and what that says about our attitude to this group of people. I am now working on a novel based on the same character and situation.’
You can read the story on the Sandstone Press web site.
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May 31, 2020
