Victoria Lane

Spectator Competition: Frankenpoem

6 December 2025 9:00 am

Comp. 3428 was inspired by Rose Ruane’s Larkin/Shelley mash-up (many thanks to Bill Greenwell for flagging this up): They Oz…

Spectator Competition: A letter from Jane

15 November 2025 9:00 am

Competition 3425 was prompted by Gill Hornby, a biographer of Jane Austen, telling an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival…

Spectator Competition: Bad advice

1 November 2025 9:00 am

Comp. 3423 invited you to submit a passage about a command or suggestion from literature being taken too literally. I…

Spectator Competition: Daylight saving

25 October 2025 9:00 am

For Competition 3422 you were invited to submit a poem or passage on the theme of ‘daylight saving’. In a…

Spectator Competition: Virtue-signalling

11 October 2025 9:00 am

For Competition 3420 you were invited to submit a poem or short story incorporating that sentence of Emerson’s: ‘The louder…

Spectator Competition: what day is it?

4 October 2025 9:00 am

For Comp 3419 you were invited to write a poem to mark National Vodka Day (4 October) or another spurious…

Spectator Competition: Forget me not

20 September 2025 9:00 am

Comp. 3417 invited you to write an elegy to a piece of obsolete technology. This prompted a deluge of very…

Spectator Competition: Throuple

13 September 2025 9:00 am

Comp. 3416 invited you to marry romantasy (the romance-fantasy fusion now dominating fiction sales) with a third genre. Narnia, gritty…

Spectator Competition: Category error

23 August 2025 9:09 am

Comp. 3413 was prompted by J.G. Ballard’s story ‘The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race’…

Spectator Competition: Popular demand

9 August 2025 9:00 am

For Comp. 3411 you were invited to submit a passage or poem on the subject of dynamic pricing. Thanks to…

Spectator Competition: Some like it hot

19 July 2025 9:00 am

For Competition 3408 you were invited to write poems about heatwaves. This comp was inspired by the weather! In the…

Spectator Competition: Between the lines

12 July 2025 9:00 am

For Competition 3407 you were invited to write about a historical event euphemistic-ally. This challenge was a little vague; Private…

Spectator Competition: Who’s who?

28 June 2025 9:00 am

For Competition 3405 you were invited to submit a scene in which Doctor Who has regenerated into someone very unexpected.…

Spectator Competition: Quirk related

7 June 2025 9:00 am

In Comp. 3402 you were invited to submit a poem or passage about an unusual predilection. The quirks ranged from…

Spectator Competition: That’s your cue

10 May 2025 9:00 am

Competition 3398 invited you to submit a poem about snooker as the world champion-ship was under way. The entries poured…