Bohemia Village Voice

Cheryl Bell

Cheryl Bell Winner of first prize in the Bohemia Village Voice 2011 Short Story Competition with her entry Alligators Don’t Wear Check Pants, Do They? Cheryl was born in Pinner, Middlesex and moved toNew Yorkin her early twenties.  She established a career there as a chief executive of several charities, as well as holding management positions in the private sector.  She moved to Hastings four years ago with her American husband. Cheryl chairs The Community Fruit & Veg Project, a Hastings & St Leonard’s social enterprise which provides affordable, locally-sourced fruit and vegetables to the community.  She is also the President of Grub On The Go, a new employee-owned company which will launch in June to bring locally-supplied, high quality, on-board catering back to passengers on the trains from Hastings to London. Cheryl is a 2010 graduate of the certificate programme in creative writing at the University of Sussex and is a member of New Writing South.  She has been writing short stories for about five years and is half way through a novel about Hollywood. [April 2012]

Colin Bostock-Smith,

Colin Bostock-Smith Winner of second prize in the Bohemia Village Voice 2011 Short Story Competition. Colin was born in East Grinstead, and first became a journalist, but escaped that drudgery by writing short stories, placing them with Argosy and other outlets. That was in the Sixties. Subsequently he won a Radio Four short story competition, which led to extensive radio and television work stretching over the next 40 years, mostly in the field of comedy. He contributed to broken comedy shows such as Not The Nine O’clock News, and the Two Ronnies, wrote several series of situation comedy, and latterly worked as a writing partner with Clive James on all the Australian critic’s comedy shows. During a short spell living in Zambia, he produced a series of comedy shows for ZNBC. His play You Must Be The Husband, starring Tim Brooke Taylor and Bridget Forsyth toured widely inEngland, and the Middle and Far East, and was produced in Germany and Italy. He currently presents a weekly two-hour radio show of music and comedy on Uckfield FM, a community radio station. He lives in a small house, near the sea in St. Leonards, without a cat. [April 2012]

Andrea Needham

Andrea Needham Winner of the third prize in the Bohemia Village Voice 2011 Short Story Competition.  Andrea has lived in Hastings (on the West Hill) for 10 years, but is originally from Suffolk.  She has a 7-year old daughter, Esme, who goes to Christ Church school, where her mother is a parent governor.  “I am an aspiring writer but have yet to produce that blockbuster novel.  I’ve never entered a short story competition before and am amazed and delighted to have won £50.  In my spare time I like walking, cycling, and getting away from the traffic”. [April 2012]