Catherine Evans – författare

The sheep that's a good listener. The woman and the ice cream salesman. The young man who falls in love with a washing machine. That age old tale.Funny, macabre, heart-breaking, eerie, disturbing, provocative...the 21 stories in this collection of originals are all winners of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival Short Story Competition Winners from its inception in 2016 to 2022. The stories are hugely varied in style and genre, and will appeal to any lover of fiction and the much-loved short story form. They have impressed the likes of Tessa Hadley, Nicholas Royle, Rachel Sieffert, Sarah Franklin, Martyn Waites, Isobel Dixon and Yasmin Kane.

15-year-old Neveah leads a double-life. She lives with her mum, Marie, who works nights and isn't too bothered what Neveah gets up to, as long as it doesn't affect her.When Neveah isn't at school, she’s earning good money by moonlighting as a digital freelancer. Giles, her biggest client, is married with a troubled home life. Neveah lies to him about her age, telling him she's twenty-two and he believes her. Caught in a heated affair, Neveah will do just about anything to stop him from finding out her true age.But a secret this big can't stay under wraps forever. When it all comes out, the consequences are devastating.Why do some young girls become sexually active way sooner than is good for them, and if a man has sex with a girl who lies about her age, is he still culpable?

Meet the Newells, a big family of good lookers and hard grafters.From their sleepy working class backwater, the siblings break into Oxford academia, London's high life, the glossy world of magazine publishing and the stratospheric riches of New York's hedge funds.Then there's Paddy, the wrong'un in their midst, who has just been released from prison for dangerous driving.As things fall apart around his sister Bea, is Paddy behind it all? And why does matriarch Edie turn a blind eye to her son's malevolence? Will she stand by and watch while he wrecks the lives of her other children? Just how much is she willing to sacrifice to protect her son?

Meet the Newells, a big family of good lookers and hard grafters. From their sleepy working class backwater, the siblings break into Oxford academia, London''s high life, the glossy world of magazine publishing and the stratospheric riches of New York''s hedge funds. Then there''s Paddy, the wrong''un in their midst, who prefers life''s underbelly. As things fall apart around his sister Bea, is Paddy behind it all? And why does matriarch Edie turn a blind eye to her son''s malevolence? Will she stand by and watch while he wrecks the lives of her other children? Just how much is she willing to sacrifice to protect her son? The book opens with Edie, now in her seventies, who looks back on her early married life with her husband, George, and their ever-growing brood. She loved having babies, but resented their growth and increasing independence. She recalls the horror and confusion surrounding the death of her toddler son, Timmy. Even though it happened forty years ago, she still blames her brother, his uncle, for falling asleep while he was supposed to be looking after the children. Now, her favourite son, Paddy, has just been released from prison for dangerous driving. She is good at making excuses for him. All her other children are successful, and have done extremely well in their chosen careers, but it becomes apparent that she begrudges her only daughter''s success. Why does she resent her daughter so much? Paddy is malevolent, violent, bullying, cruel... Edie has never forgiven herself for giving him up to the care system before she married George. He has never fitted in with his siblings, and is the bad apple that can ruin the whole batch. The only person he has ever cared about is his stepfather, George, who saw only too clearly what Edie has always been blind to. Bea, the only daughter in the family, has grown up knowing her mother doesn''t love her. She is a successful journalist, and adores her husband, David, and her stepchildren, but longs for a baby of her own. Then suddenly David dies. In the midst of her grief, her glamorous cleaning lady, Lorena, flaunts her pregnancy. She insists that the baby is David''s, and is willing to take a DNA test to prove it. Welcome to the world of the Newells, where nothing is as it seems.