Competition
Bad romance
In Competition No. 3076 you were invited to submit seriously misguided love poems. You seemed to embrace this task especially…
Trumpian verse
In Competition No. 3075 you were invited to submit poems by Donald Trump. The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump, which…
We’re scamming
In Competition No. 3074 you were invited to submit a scam letter ghostwritten by a well-known author, living or dead.…
Neo-gothic
In Competition No. 3073 you were invited to submit a short story in the Gothic style with a topical twist.…
Brief lives
In Competition No. 3072 you were invited to supply a short verse biography of a well-known figure from history. …
Accentuate the negative
In Competition No. 3071 you were invited to supply a demotivational poem. This was your opportunity to come up…
Mary, Mary…
In Competition No. 3070 you were invited to provide a poem with the title ‘When I Grow Up I Want…
Favouritism
In Competition No. 3069 you were invited to provide a spoof version of the song ‘My Favourite Things’ for the…
Back-to-front sonnet
In Competition No. 3068 you were invited to provide a sonnet in reverse, using as your model Rupert Brooke’s ‘Sonnet…
Holiday hell
In Competition No. 3067 you were invited to provide a tale of travel misery on behalf of a well-known traveller…
This sporting life
In Competition No. 3066 you were invited to submit an ode to a piece of sporting equipment. There is a…
All’s well that ends well
In Competition No. 3065 you were invited to supply a happy ending for a well-known play, poem or novel. …
Living dangerously
In Competition No. 3064 you were invited to supply a newspaper leading article exposing the hitherto unsuspected corrupting influence of…
Pundemic
In Competition No. 3063 you were invited to submit a poem about puns containing puns. Dryden regarded paronomasia as…
Where there’s a Will
In Competition No. 3062 you were invited to submit a Shakespearean-style soliloquy that a contemporary politician might have felt moved…
The appliance of science
In Competition No. 3061 you were invited to imagine a well-known author who doesn’t normally write in the genre having…
A new Jerusalem
In Competition No. 3060 you were invited to provide an updated version of ‘Jerusalem’ starting with the words ‘And did…
That’s chemistry
In Competition No. 3059 you were invited to supply a poem inspired by the periodic table. The writer and chemist…
Tourist misinformation
In Competition No. 3058 you were invited to supply snippets of mischievously/sadistically misleading advice for foreign tourists visiting Britain, or…
Net effect
In Competition No. 3057 you were invited to submit a short story entitled ‘The day the internet died’. Phyllis…
Closed shop
In Competition No. 3056 you were invited to submit an elegy on the death of the High Street. Your…
Question time
In Competition No. 3055 you were invited to take a well-known figure on the world stage, living or dead, and…
Double vision
In Competition No. 3054 you were invited to compose double dactyls about double acts. I didn’t include the rules about…
#MeToo lit
In Competition No. 3053, an assignment prompted by Anthony Horowitz’s reflections on creating female characters for his latest Bond novel,…
A sonnet on it
In Competition No. 3052 you were invited to supply a sonnet inspired by a well-known contemporary figure’s characteristic feature. There…
