I was saddened to read of the death of novelist Leslie Thomas. I met him in 1985 when he was awarding prizes for the Radio Forth Short Story Competition. (I came second, with a story entitled The Miss MacDonald Affair that was written as an act of vengeance against a sarcastic French teacher I endured for five years.)
Leslie Thomas stayed for the entire event, chatting, telling stories and giving encouragement to all the prizewinners and runners-up.
This contrasted with a later Radio Forth competition where Melvyn Bragg announced the winners, then promptly disappeared (having, presumably pocketed his cheque).
And, by the way, the competition judge back in 1985 was a youngish Ian Rankin. (I wonder what happened to him.)
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