Sophie King Prize Winning Podcast Read by an Actor LISTEN here

Corazon Books is pleased to announce the winner of The Sophie King Prize 2015, an annual romantic fiction competition that aims to discover a great new romance short story.

"Almost a Stranger" by Jasmina Svenne is the poignant story of a young soldier returning to his wife and child at the end of the Great War.

Thestory was chosen by bestselling novelist and short story writer Sophie King.

Sophie King says: "There were three particularly strong contenders for the prize. However, "Almost A Stranger" really stood out because it was beautifully crafted with a poignant sense of nostalgia and emotion that drew in the reader. Plotting skill was combined with evocative characterisation. The story left me thinking about it long after I finished – which is always a good sign."

Jasmina Svenne is a Nottinghamshire-based historical fiction writer. She has had one novel published, as well as nine novella-length historical romances for DC Thomson. She's also recently had short stories published in a number of prize-winners’ anthologies.

Jasmina says, "Naturally I was thrilled to win the Sophie King Prize and a bit shell-shocked, because I've only ever won one other competition before and I wasn't sure if a historical story was quite what the judges were looking for. The inspiration for the story came from reading a vast number of authentic WWI letters, diaries and transcripts of interviews with survivors of the conflict, as research for a novel I am currently working on. What became clear to me from all these sources was that formerly close families became fractured as a result of what the men had endured at the front and that the women and children who were left behind had also adapted and changed in their absence. I just wanted to explore how such a family might try to find a way back to being a close unit again."

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