Interview with the 2026 Devon Prize winner: Paul Batterham

 

Paul Batterham is a writer based in Exeter, where his short fiction draws on Dartmoor folklore, local history and the uncanny edges of modern life. He also makes the Exeter Stories podcast, documenting the city's community & cultural life, and lives there with his husband, Mark.

What did you start with to create your story - the character, the concept or something else?

The feeling of the place. We’d recently returned from a trip to Thailand, and had stayed at a lotus farm with a family. I wanted to evoke how it felt to be in that specific place, surrounded by ruined temples and traditional stilted Thai houses. The characters and concept flowed from that.

How long have you been writing and have you had anything published before?

I’ve been writing as a hobby for 15 years or so, really as a creative foil to my day job. I’ve not had anything published, as I’ve not pursued it to any great degree. Like a lot of folk, I have loads of ideas, and loads of half-finished stories of varying lengths, but nothing in print. This prize has given me the impetus to really lean into writing, so I’ve recently committed to writing a novella this year.

(Because it's been so ridiculously hot in the UK this week) Does the weather influence your writing?

I find it really difficult to sit and write when it’s hot; my mind just won’t focus in that way. So I often take my brain for a walk instead, and make notes as I walk. Good weather really helps with getting out and processing things, so I make use of that when I can.

If you could invite 3 literary characters to tea, who would they be and why?

I’d invite three storytellers: 

Charles Carter, the stage magician from Glen David Gold's Carter Beats the Devil. He was a man who built his career out of stories, misdirection, and showmanship, working in Houdini's shadow. Then Sir Richard Francis Burton, but specifically Mark Hodder's steampunk version from the Burton & Swinburne books. Burton was an explorer and scholar, and would be company enough, but in those books he hangs out with dissolute Romantics, and fights time-travelling assassins between expeditions. Lastly, Fungus the Bogeyman, from the books by Raymond Briggs. Briggs, alongside Jan Pieńkowski's pop-up books, was the reason I went to art college to train as a children's book illustrator.

Imagine the stories they would bring!

What will you spend your prize money on?

I’ll be donating it to Literature Works, who are a fantastic charity that champion storytelling and support writers at all stages, and who are currently on the hunt for the next Exeter Young City Laureate: https://literatureworks.org.uk/exeter-young-city-laureate-2026-27-the-search-has-begun/

What is your writing process, pen to paper or straight to screen?

Longhand notes using cheap BIC biros in cheap notebooks from WHSmiths. Then on to the laptop, fleshing those notes out. I am a plotter, not a pantser; I prefer knowing how stories end so I can write toward it. It may change as I get closer, or it may change in the edit, but I need the reassurance of direction. I try and make dialogue as close to human speech as I can, so can often be overheard having conversations with myself to understand the cadence and how it fits together. 

Thank you for sharing your writing process with us, Paul.

You can read Paul's story here.