BBC National Short Story Award 2019

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Short Story Podcast-image

BBC National Short Story Award

Audiobooks

Podcasts

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Stories shortlisted for the National Short Story Award

BBC Radio 4 LW

BBC National Short Story Award: BBC National Short Story Award 2019: The Children by Lucy Caldwell

The Children by Lucy Caldwell

BBC Radio 4 - BBC National Short Story Award, BBC National Short Story Award 2019, The Children by Lucy Caldwell

Lucy Caldwell’s powerful story about motherhood and loss.

In Lucy Caldwell’s powerful story about motherhood and loss, past and present collide.  Read by Jessica Raine

In Lucy Caldwell’s powerful story where past and present collide and reflections on motherhood and loss lead to disquieting parallels between the story of nineteenth century writer and activist, Caroline Norton, and the present day plight of immigrant families on the border between the US and Mexico. The reader is Jessica Raine.

Now in its fourteenth year, the BBC National Short Story Award is one of the most prestigious for a single short story. Following the announcement of the shortlist on Radio 4's Front Row, on Friday, 6th September, the five stories in contention for the 2019 award will be broadcast each weekday afternoon on Radio 4 at half past three from Monday, 9th September. To find out who wins this year, listeners should tune into Front Row on Tuesday, 1st October where the hotly anticipated announcement will be made live from the BBC Radio Theatre. 

The shortlisted entries for this year's BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University are an eclectic mix, spanning a breadth of themes and topics; from confronting modern social and cultural issues to the contemporary and the political, and then onto the fantastical and escapist. Rich in variety the stories are united in their quest for empathy and understanding in an increasingly intolerant world.

Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Allard

BBC National Short Story Award: BBC National Short Story Award 2019

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Readings of the five stories shortlisted for the prestigious annual prize.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

BBC National Short Story Award

BBC National Short Story Award 2019

The Children by Lucy Caldwell

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4