Hilary Mantel's shortlisted comic story is filled with unlikely memories, lost lives and the odd bad joke. Read by Miriam Margolyes.

Hilary Mantel was born in Derbyshire, educated at a Cheshire convent and now lives in Devon. She graduated in law in 1973 and was briefly a hospital social worker, and later a teacher in Africa and the Middle East. She has been a full-time writer since the mid-1980s, reviewing books and films and producing contemporary and historical fiction. She has won two Man Booker prizes, the Costa Book of the Year Award and the Walter Scott Prize (among others). In 2015 she received a joint Tony nomination for the Broadway version of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Hilary Mantel was previously shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award with BookTrust in 2015.

The five shortlisted stories for the BBC National Short Story Award 2016 comprised a mix of established and new writers of this most inventive and imaginative of genres. Human connection, the desire for it, and what happens when it falls away are at the heart of this year's shortlist, which takes us across the globe and the generations, shining a light on the intimate inner lives of each story's protagonist.

The winner and the runner up were announced on Tuesday 4th October 2016

Produced by Julian Wilkinson. Show less