"Mrs Fox" by Sarah Hall 2013 Winner of the BBC Best Short Story Award

Sarah Hall BBC National Short Story Award 2013  Sarah Hall has added another accolade to her growing list by winning the BBC National Short Story Award 2013 for her story 'Mrs Fox'. She picked up the main prize of £15,000 at the ceremony held on 8th October at the Radio Theatre in the BBC's Broadcasting House in London. She was presented with her cheque by this year's Chair of Judges, journalist and arts critic Mariella Frostrup, as the news was announced live on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.  Sarah’s winning story is a darkly erotic transformation tale in which a woman turns into a fox to her husband’s confusion and dismay Sarah Hall was born in Cumbria in 1974. She received a BA from Aberystwyth University, Wales, and a MLitt in Creative Writing from St Andrews, Scotland. She is the author of Haweswater, which won the 2003 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Novel, a Society of Authors Betty Trask Award, and a Lakeland Book of the Year prize.  In 2004, her second novel, The Electric Michelangelo, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia region), and the Prix Femina Etranger, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.  Her third novel, The Carhullan Army, was published in 2007, and won the 2006/07 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the James Tiptree Jr. Award, a Lakeland Book of the Year prize, was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction, and long-listed for the Dublin IMPAC Award. The Carhullan Army was listed as one of The Times 100 Best Books of the Decade.  Her fourth novel, How To Paint A Dead Man, was published in 2009 and was longlisted for the Man Booker prize and won the Portico Prize for Fiction 2010. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.  Her first collection of short stories, titled The Beautiful Indifference, was published by Faber & Faber in November 2011. The Beautiful Indifference won the Portico Prize for Fiction 2012 and the Edge Hill short story prize, it was also short-listed for the Frank O'Connor Prize.  Sarah Hall is an honorary fellow of Aberystwyth University, and a fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation (2007). She has judged a number of prestigious literary awards and prizes. She tutors for the Faber Academy, The Guardian, the Arvon Foundation, and has taught creative writing in a variety of establishments in the UK and abroad. Sarah currently lives in Norwich, Norfolk.  In March of this year I posted on Sarah Hall's very good short story, "Evie".  "Mrs. Fox" is a much more interesting, very captivating story about a woman who turns into a fox.    My first reaction on seeing her change was shades of Kafka and I do think the story works if seen as a kind of working of the same field but in a very different way.  The central figures in the story are a young childless married couple.   They have a decent relationship, not drama free, and a comfortable life.  One morning the woman does not feel well.  Soon she has metamorphosed into a fox.  The fun and intrigue in the story is seeing how the husband reacts.  The story can be viewed as a commentary on marriage and read from a feminist perspective it has a lot to say about sexual roles and stereotypes.  It is written in a charming kind of fairy tale style which the editor of the BBC collection compares to Angela Carter.   I greatly enjoyed this story and hope to read her new collection of short stories soon.

"Evie" by Sarah Hall

"Evie" by Sarah Hall  (2012)

March 1 to March 31
A Sunday Times Finalist
An ISSM3 Special Event

Sarah Hall

My Favorite Sunday Times Short Stories So Far

1.  "Miss Lora" by Junot Diaz

2.  "The Shot" by Mark Haddon

3.  "The Beholder" by Ali Smith

4.  "Evie" by Sarah Hall
6.  "The Dig" by Cynan Jones -no post on this story

5.  "Call It ‘The Bug’ Because I Have No Time to Think of a Better Title" by Toby Litt-I did no post on this story

For what it is worth, I thought "Miss Lora" was for sure the best of these stories.

In my posts on the first three stories I have explained why I feel justified including the six final stories for The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award as part of ISSM3.  Basically these are example of what are perceived as in demand style short stories that professional think will sell.

"Evie" by Sarah Hall has even more sexual content in it than "Miss Lora" by Junot Diaz, and that is saying a lot.  "Evie" is a well done story.   Married men, have you ever wished your wife would initiate more sex, do things that only girl friends or even hookers are supposed to do?  This story is about what happens when this comes true for Evie's husband.  The plot is very linear and once you get the idea fairly predictable.

Evie first changes her eating habits, craving high sugar foods she had always avoided, then she starts drinking a lot, whiskey.  Then she starts demanding sex in a way bolder fashion than she ever had before.  Soon she wants sex several times a day (yes I told you this was a frightening story) doing things she would never do, other than maybe on her husband's birthday before.   He walks in on her watching hard core porn while naked and stimulating herself.  Shades of a sexual exorcism seem in order to him when she tells him she wants to have sex with him and their old friend Richard at the same time.  Soon she comes home with a letter from work saying she has been acting inappropriately.   She has asked several of the men there to have sex with her.   Of course the husband knows something is very wrong with his once very proper wife.  I will tell just a bit too much of this story.  One day as he and his friend Richard are just done with a joint session with her she begins to foam at the mouth and pass out so of course they rush her to the hospital.  

When the ending comes, I went "Oh so that was what it was".

This is a decent enough story, some fun to read sex scenes (OK maybe the only parts that were entertaining) but over all I did not like it nearly as much as any of the other three stories I have so far read.  If I want to read porn, I will take it straight.  

Author Data

Sarah Hall is the author of Haweswater (2003), which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for best first novel, The Electric Michelangelo (2004), which was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Prix Femina Etranger and was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and The Carhullan Army (2007), which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was listed as one of the 100 Best Books of the Decade by The Times. Her most recent novel, How to Paint a Dead Man (2009), won the Portico Prize for Fiction 2010 and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Mel u