Hook, Line and Sinker

Hook; line; sinker: three key ingredients of a short story. Any tale, at least, that's made up of Perils and Predicaments. The Vicar had a "hook" for his sermon: he'd start with a recently-found letter from England's war poet, Wilfred Owen. That would certainly cause a stir . . . Journalist Robbie Glendenning had a "hook" for his first article: the man he'd met in the pub claimed to have just witnessed a murder as he cleaned the office windows . . . A "line" of narrative. Say, who comes next when a Line of monarchy ends. How can William Shakespeare edit the plot? Or the result when sticks are burnt below the House of Lords. Even a young Charles Dickens is lost for words. A "sinker" to end the story with a bang. The first ever flight: North Yorkshire, 1848; where would it end? And how could a burglar even be late for his own funeral? A collection of twenty tales to entertain and gently probe. Can you swallow any of these, hook, line and sinker? Top short-story author Iain Pattison wrote of the first story, "Act of Remembrance": ". . . a very unusual story, with a quiet thoughtful tone. I was mesmerised from the opening paragraph..."