competitions
Our brilliant Free Love competition attracted lots of romantic stories - but our winners made us smile and swoon...
The winners were Lucy Atkins from Oxford and Jane Gallagher from Liverpool: they won a year's worth of New Romantic novels.
Lucy's entry made us laugh:
Our first encounter and I knew he was the one. It really was that
simple. The lamp glowed, I felt sweaty in my winter pullover but I
scraped mud off my boots on the threshold to string out the moment,
really savour it. I could feel him watching. My fingers trembled on the
latch. I tried to think of something intelligent to say but all I could
do was grin. I stepped inside, slowly knelt on the straw - then he fell
on me, tongue on my face. “Pedigree name,” grunted the breeder, “is Nebuchadnezzar Prius.”
I laughed: new love.
And Jane's story of love in crunched times made us envious (see the photo above):
“Why choose that film?” asks my husband. “Because the girl has a bike with a basket – I ve always dreamt of riding one.” Two weeks later it’s my birthday but in these cash-strapped times I’m not expecting much. At daybreak he leads me to our freezing garage. I struggle to focus through the hazy half-light and debris of a four-child family. Then I see it. Over the past fortnight he’s spent every spare minute restoring an old skipped bike before re-spraying it my favourite colour. Best of all, attached to the sparkling silver handlebars is a brand new wicker basket.
