Brightly Coloured Horses is the first flash fiction collection from award-winning author, Mandy Huggins.
Twenty-seven tales of betrayal and loss, of dreams and hopes, of lovers, liars and cheats. Stories with a strong sense of place, transporting us from the seashore to the city, from India’s monsoon to the heat of Cuba, and from the supermarket aisle to a Catalonian fiesta. We meet a baby that never existed, a car called Marilyn, a one-eyed cat, and a boy whose kisses taste of dunked biscuits.
These stories all have something in common; each is a glimpse of what it’s like to be human. We make mistakes, we do our best, and most of he time we find hope.
Mandy’s
work has been published in various anthologies and literary magazines, as well
as in The
Guardian, The Telegraph, Reader's Digest, Traveller, and Writers' Forum.
Her
travel writing has won several awards, including the British Guild of Travel
Writers New Travel Writer Award in 2014, and her short stories are regularly
placed and shortlisted in competitions, including Bare Fiction, Fish, InkTears,
Cinnamon Press and Retreat West.
A
selection of her longer fiction is showcased in Death of a Superhero, published
by InkTears, and her travel writing can be found in Roam Alone, a Bradt Travel
Guide.
Mandy’s
favourite writers include Kazuo Ishiguro, Charlotte Bronte, Yoko Ogawa, Helen
Dunmore, Patti Smith and Ernest Hemingway.
Follow
her on Twitter @troutiemcfish
Reviews
Reviews
This is a really enjoyable collection of short and
Flash Fiction set in many different countries by a versatile writer. She is
able to catch a wide variety of emotions in a very short story with
exceptional precision. Many are about
lost or unrequited love, elegaic in tone. Some , like Twenty Dollar Shoes are
heartbreaking. Others, like Waiting and Just for the Dance glimpse a memory of
happiness, while many leave the reader
in the air , anticipating the next action , drawn into the scene, and forced to
imagine what happens next. An intriguing
group of stories which will reward the reader.
Elaine Bermitz
'This
is a writer who knows her craft. Never a word out place, poignant, sometimes
sad, sometimes startling, these stories fit worlds into small spaces. A long
awaited debut.'
Angela Readman, author of Don't Try This
at Home and The Book of Tides
'If you want the perfect witness to a crime,
Mandy Huggins is your woman. She notices everything about the people, places and
the things around her. Colours, temperature, sounds, the lot. And she gets all
this down in lovely little stories that spin around in the reader's head,
dizzying us with her powerful images of loss, regret and yearning.'
David Gaffney, author of Sawn-Off
Tales and All the Places I've Ever Lived
'Amanda's work is well crafted, subtle, and shows a deft hand. I love the way she gets
into the psychology of each character, delving into their secret wishes and
desires, giving us insights into how and why people act the way they do.'
A M Howcroft, InkTears - author of Nobody Will Ever Love You
Brightly Coloured Horses available here.
