Hello America,

I enjoyed this year's crop of short stories very much, and I think the quality was more even than ever before, which made my job as judge really difficult. There was very little to choose between you all, and since the whole process is subjective and arbitrary I could have picked names out of a hat and come up with an equally valid list of winners. So do carry on writing if you're not in my top three this year; I've had some severe beatings from judges over the years and I've learnt to just get on with it and enjoy myself. Judges are nearly always morons, we all know that. Myself excepted, of course.

Since he came up with not one but two charming stories, New Shoes and Too Many TVs , I'm going to give the top prize to Thomas Morris. Good stuff, Thomas, and if you haven't been published before I would urge you to write some more stories with a view to presenting your work to a Welsh publisher; I would be happy to introduce you to a commissioning editor.

Second prize goes to Natalie Grigson for Compulsion , and third prize goes to Samantha Priestley for Driving Barefoot .

As for the rest of you, there wasn't a duffer among all the entries. Good luck to you all, and do carry on scribbling.