Felicity Radcliffe's Blog: 'Felicity Radcliffe's Dark Side'

I recently wrote a short story called Safe Landing, which is set in a Fleet Street newsroom on a momentous day in 1969. It is based on a supposedly true story that was doing the rounds among journalists back then.

I don't want to spoil the plot, but let's just say that editors could still take a pretty creative approach to the news in those days, long before Photoshop was invented!

My Dad was a Fleet Street journalist during the heady, 'hot metal' days of the 1960s and 70s, so I heard lots of stories about that adrenalin-fuelled world and sometimes experienced it first hand.

In Safe Landing, I wanted to explore the casual, everyday sexism that was the norm back then and which stopped so many talented women from achieving their full potential.

In these days of #MeToo it's hard to remember that, back then, prejudice against women was so ingrained in society that most women either accepted it, didn't even notice it or in some cases even supported it, as we see in my story.

There is still a long way to go before we achieve true equality between men and women, but we have made huge progress since the 1960s - and I hope my story shows that. I'll publish it here as soon as the competition results have been announced.

In my blog description I mentioned that I plan to share on this blog the short stories that I write for competitions. I have two in the pipeline at the moment, but I can't publish them until the results of the competition have been announced.

First up is a story called Ice Magic, which I will be able to release in May. I thought I'd just share some information about it in advance of publication.

The rules of the competition specified that we had to write a short story comprising exactly 1,000 words - not 999, not 1,001. The judges really are that strict! It was an incredibly difficult ask. The second rule was that the story should be based on the theme 'Ice'.

For a skier like me, the mere mention of the word ice conjures up an almost Pavlovian reaction. If you want to scare me, just play me a tape of a snowboard rasping across hard-packed snow - I guarantee it's more effective than any horror film. So it was almost inevitable that at least part of the story would be set on the slopes.

I called the story Ice Magic, as an homage to that wonderful sauce that hardens immediately when you squirt it on ice cream. I'm sure readers of a certain age will remember - or maybe it's still on sale somewhere?

That's about as much as I can say about the story without spoiling the plot. I promise to publish it on this blog as soon as the competition results are announced - even if it comes last! I'll also publish the judges' comments...