Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition winners: Philip Larkin’s poems rewritten by other poets

17 September 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3266, you were invited to reimagine one of Philip Larkin’s poems in the style of a poet…

Spectator competition winners: Ebenezer Scrooge asks for a loan

10 September 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3265, you were invited to submit a letter to a friend asking for a loan as it…

Spectator competition winners: surreptitious sonnets

3 September 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3264, you were invited to submit a poem in response to the following journal entry by Wallace…

Spectator competition winners: cosy crime with a topical twist

27 August 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3263, you were invited to submit a short story, written in the style of a cosy mystery…

Spectator competition winners: Tory leadership acrostics

20 August 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3262, you were invited to submit a poem on behalf of Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss in…

Poems about the James Webb Space Telescope

13 August 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3261, you were invited to submit a poem about the James Webb Space Telescope. The first dazzling…

Spectator competition winners: Government ministries you didn’t know existed

6 August 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3260, a challenge suggested by a reader, you were invited to reveal the existence of a hitherto…

Spectator competition winners: A Kentish Lad

30 July 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3259, you were invited to submit a poem entitled ‘A(n) [insert county of your choice] Lad’. There…

Spectator competition winners: a postcard from Airstrip One

23 July 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3258, you were invited to submit a postcard sent while on holiday in a well-known fictional destination…

Spectator competition winners: filmericks

16 July 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3257, you were invited to summarise a film in limerick form. A nod to Ezra Haber Glenn,…

Spectator competition winners: famous poems rewritten as short stories

9 July 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3256, you were invited to take a well-known poem and recast it as a short story. Ben…

Spectator competition winners: poems about imperial measures

2 July 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3255, you were invited to submit a poem about imperial measures. Brian Bilston’s terrific poem ‘The Empire’s…

‘Poundland and Prejudice’: book titles tweaked for straitened times

25 June 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3254, you were invited to tweak a well-known book title to reflect the straitened times we live…

Spectator competition winners: What was Edgar Allen Poe created for?

18 June 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3253, you were invited to write a poem entitled ‘Song of Myself’ in the style of the…

Spectator competition winners: how not to write a letter of condolence

11 June 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3252, you were invited to write a letter of condolence on the mis-fortune of an acquaintance which,…

Spectator competition winners: Platinum Jubilee poems from Kipling and A.A. Milne

4 June 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3251, you were invited to submit a poem to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee in the style…

Spectator competition winners: sonnets on Mammon

28 May 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3250, you were invited to submit a sonnet to Mammon. It was ‘Epigram for Wall Street’, attributed…

Jacob Rees-Mogg does Mills & Boon

21 May 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3249, you were invited to submit an extract from a Mills & Boon novel whose central character…

Spectator competition winners: The last will and testament of Gollum

14 May 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3248, you were asked to submit the last will and testament of a fictional character. In a…

Spectator competition winners: If Alan Bennett had been a spy

7 May 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3247, you were asked to submit the reflections of a well-known writer on a career path they…

Spectator competition winners: poets bemoan a problematic appendage

30 April 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3246, you were invited to submit a poem in the style of the poet of your choice…

Spectator competition winners: Let’s parler Franglais

23 April 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3245, you were asked to take a passage from a classic of French literature and recast it…

Spectator competition winners: poems for St George in Bono-metrics

16 April 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3244, you were invited to submit a poem to mark St George’s Day that rivals in awfulness…

Spectator competition: poems about Shackleton’s Endurance

9 April 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3243, you were invited to submit a poem about the recent discovery of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance.…

Spectator competition winners: The polar bear who came to tea

2 April 2022 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3242, you were asked to submit a short story that is a mash-up of cli-fi with a…