It’s always a treat to stumble upon an engaging short story and doubly so to discover a prize-winning work. The VS Pritchett Short Story Prize for 2022 was recently awarded to Kaliane Bradley’s genre-bending story Doggerland. Simultaneously humorous and creepy, the story harkens back to 19th macbre tales.

“My apprentice arrived at the end of August: a young man of twenty-five, dragging a box of books and a briefcase with two changes of clothes. I had asked for a woman, but I had asked for tinned peaches too, and I was only ever sent pineapple.

The sun was elbowing its way over the horizon, dragging up light the garish orange of work overalls. The heath looked like a fluorescent sponge. My apprentice boyhandled the box to the bottom of the cottage steps and smiled around me. He put his smile to my feet and then my shoulder before eventually settling on my face.

“Hello,” he said. “I made it.”

So you did.

If you are intrigued, you can read the entire story here.