Read the 2026 First Prize Winner: A House Without Song by John Barrett Lee
A House Without Song by John Barrett Lee Alfie Evans had grown used to the silence in his grandmother's house on Priory Road. Not the peace of a contented home but a hush that weighed on him where once there had been music. The bay-fronted terrace opened into a cool hallway. Outside, traffic rumbled and gulls shrieked over the docks, but here time held its breath in the dappled light from the stained-glass window. The tiles were worn by a century of footsteps, though Grandad Dai's heavy boots no longer trailed mud across them. Off the hall, the sitting room was a time capsule of the eighties: flock wallpaper, pink velour, and a glass-fronted teak cabinet of knick-knacks gathering dust. Against one wall stood the piano. Its polished walnut still glowed, but the lid stayed shut, the runner across it like a careful little shroud. On top sat the photos — Alfie and Chloe grinning awkwardly in bright blue school uniforms; their mum as a freckled child; and Nanny and Grandad Dai on...
