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U3A Woman Sweeps Penrith Eisteddfod

U3A's Margaret Skiller, pictured, made a clean sweep of the 2008 City of Penrith Eisteddfod when her four entries took all three prizes in Section 8—the Short Story competition.

Margaret is no stranger to success in the Eisteddfod and had previously won third prize with her 2006 entry.

The winning entry, The Wrong Colour, was a story of opal mining where her obvious knowledge of the process made her story realistic as she sketched realistic characters that gripped the reader's attention all the way through to the surprise ending.

Second place went to Deep Purple. My personal favourite, it was a daring journey into a delusional mind. It explored the patient's perception of a therapy session—first with a psychiatrist, later as she endures electroconvulsive therapy—and interprets her reaction to it very convincingly.

Third place, It Happened on a Train was a “chance” meeting between a journalist and a striking transsexual woman with “button black eyes” and wearing “lolly pink shoes with heels that Carmen Miranda would have envied.” Once again there is a deliberately anti-climactic surprise ending.

The fourth story, The Publican draws on Margaret's experience of country life (if not necessarily of publicans) and traces the town's reaction to a new publican whose demeanour seems unpleasant and unfriendly when contrasted to the previous, popular man. As his new ideas find acceptance the town begins to warm to him and he, in turn, becomes warmer and more approachable. Then, when all seems well, enter a woman—a Princess Diana look-alike—and suddenly the whole mood of the story changes for another very satisfying conclusion. In my opinion this story failed to win a prize only because of the quality of Margaret's other three entries. It certainly deserved something.

In all three stories the judges praised Margaret's use of language and dialogue. They complimented her on her introductions (the Publican introduction was described as “great”), her vocabulary (especially that relating to mining and fossicking) and her surprise endings.

Well done, Margaret Skiller. We hope the future brings you many more successes.