Sue Wilsea’s witty, resonant and often devastating short stories have been delighting readers for two decades, and have built her reputation as one of Hull’s foremost modern storytellers. Staying Afloat collects nineteen of her finest tales.
Highlights include ‘Paper Flowers’, which was read by Dame Judi Dench on BBC Radio; Stephen facing his mother’s death and his father’s insanity; an unnamed narrator contemplating what led two of her friends to jump off the Humber Bridge; and Dick the Vic, whose unlikely adventures lead him from the ministry to a club known only as ‘The Dirty Habit’.
“I think it’s beautifully written, a very delicate story... I enjoyed it enormously.”
Dame Judi Dench on ‘Paper Flowers’
Sue Wilsea was born in Portsmouth in 1952. During the last thirty years she has taught English in schools, colleges, libraries, community centres and prisons. In 2010 she was named as one of nine ‘New and Gifted’ writers by the Jerwood/Arvon Foundation. She has also been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. Her first collection of short stories, Blood Sisters, was published in 1993. She is currently a Creative Writing tutor at the University of Hull, and lives in East Yorkshire.