Possibly one of the most terrifying starts to any thriller I have read. A strong story of revenge where you wait to find out just who is the body in the bath … and when you do, it’s not what you’ve been thinking all along. And revenge is multi- layered too – just who is doing what to whom and why? I can’t wait to read the next book in the series
Ian Prior, York. Avid thriller reader.
OMG!! Complex, original and twisty
Diana Davis , author of 'Roman's War'
When I read the chapters about Reagan in this book, I had nightmares for a week.
Roz Kendall, Novelist
Written with energy and strong characters. Great imagination
Neil White, author of ‘The Hidden Hand’
A really interesting story with plenty of questions in the story line
Tony Moran, author of ‘Ecclesholme’
You have a very sophisticated sense of writing.
Nick Collins - Writer and Behavioural Psychologist
I really like the intrigue and menace of this book, with fascinating characters as well.
Gemma Carolan, author of ‘Picasso amongst the Pigeons’
This is pretty easy to read and get involved with. There’s no huge head-scratching or wondering where you are in the story.
Another marvellous romp.
Peter Hardman, author of ‘The Farmer from Kandahar’
Watcher in the Woods
Published in 'Sayings of Life' 2024
Really creepy and disturbing. The idyllic images of woodland contrast sharply with the unease and despair of the narrator’s thoughts. And, at the end, the whole plot turns on it’s head in the form of a dramatic and unexpected twist. I was not expecting this.
Angela Brandsforth, author of ‘Beyond the Twisted Rope’
Thrills twice.
William Thomas, author of 'Jesus of the Edges'
The Girl on the Bridge entered in 2019 in the Leeds Writers Circle competitions
Second Prize Stephanie Thornton – The Girl on the Bridge
POETRY (judged by Angela Topping , Poet. Literary critic and author)
The Girl on the Bridge critique
This poem is hard hitting. The form chosen, that of repeating the title as an anaphora to start each stanza except the last, helps to control the emotions of the speaker. The poem offers multiple critiques of our society: the fact a young mother feels so desperate she throws herself off a bridge points to the cuts to mental health care and benefits of this austerity- ridden society; the fact no-one helps her is a damning indictment of our selfish attitudes, as people take photos, rather than try to persuade her down. The first three stanzas hold the girl in our view as she stands, and the reader hopes against hope that someone will help her, persuade her down. The poet carefully shapes our vision: ‘her sorrowing clothes blown out of shape’ is a moving deployment of metonymy.
Later in this poem, after she falls onto a red car on the road below the bridge, the line ‘someone's car is hurt’ indicates society values property over life, and the word ‘vapid’ to describe the day critiques bystanders; they will likely post their photos on social media. Their hypocrisy is shown in the lines: ‘passers-by look at the blood and turn away / after taking another picture’. The last stanza places the event in the past, and changes the repeated phrase to ‘No-one has helped the girl on the bridge’. Instead of being a person, she has become a photo opportunity, the death’s filmic qualities appreciated, because the car was red.
This poem is ambitious. It's no easy task to write about something like this, and it is based on a real incident. The repeated phrase is altered again for the last line ‘No- one is really seeing / the girl that had been on that bridge'.
This is a good example of what I meant when I said about the form and language fitting the topic perfectly.
Getting On - a soliloquy entered in 2018-19 in the Leeds Writers Circle Short Story Competitions
Third Prize - Stephanie Thornton
Short Story - Judged by Martyn Bedford, novelist, journalist and literary critic
A very enjoyable and engaging monologue that produces a 'last hurrah' for a woman of a certain age. It captures a highly distinctive tone - not only in attitudes and observations but in a manner of expression and the writer's degree of self-awareness. the style is aptly calibrated in the one-last-fling mentality.
its a funny piece as well as being thought-provoking, in a society that is leaving her behind, I also liked the posthumous closing passage - a clever device which rounds off the story effectively.