[Graham King]

Congrats all, and intriguing to see two Ruth Rendell wins.

I'm mildly puzzled at the slight trunc(!)ation of my own entry. Its text continued:
'(I mean a box chest not one his body has. like a trunk. But not like elefants hav.)'
I enjoyed having the 'elefant' reference linking back to the first sentence.

Is it common for entries placed among the winners to have been edited?

[Chris O'Carroll]

Originally Posted by Graham King

Is it common for entries placed among the winners to have been edited?

Yes. Some would say that it's uncommon for a winning entry not to be edited a bit. (At the Spectator, on the other hand, I've never experienced any editorial intervention beyond switches from American to British spelling and punctuation.)

[Brian Allgar]

You got off lightly Graham, as did I - only three words deleted. But the previous week, all the entries were transposed into the present tense, and in my case, from the first person to the third, which made it rather clunky. Vicky clearly takes her editorial duties very seriously.

[Graham King]

Originally Posted by Brian Allgar

You got off lightly Graham, as did I - only three words deleted. But the previous week, all the entries were transposed into the present tense, and in my case, from the first person to the third, which made it rather clunky. ...

Gosh! That's an eye-opener.
(I wasn't complaining, particularly.) Curious, though!

[basil ransome-davies]

Let me add my voice to the chorus of legitimate complaints. MdM's redaction fetish is getting out of hand. What I wrote was 'And only one day after the Big Ear radio telescope received a signal from deep space.' I.e. Elvis's death followed, rather than preceding, the signal.

[Peter Goulding]

Ah, fair play to yous, lads.

Hopefully, when you return your cheques in protest, Vicky will send them on to some of us without literary principles??

[Brian Allgar]

Originally Posted by basil ransome-davies

Let me add my voice to the chorus of legitimate complaints. MdM's redaction fetish is getting out of hand. What I wrote was 'And only one day after the Big Ear radio telescope received a signal from deep space.' I.e. Elvis's death followed, rather than preceding, the signal.

Bazza, I hadn't realized that you are G.M. Davis - congratulations yet again.

Vicky presumably felt that after a mere forty (is it?) years of writing competition entries, you can't yet be expected to have learnt how to express yourself clearly, especially when using tricky words like 'after' or 'later', nor to insert commas where they are required.

[basil ransome-davies]

43. I started late.