The story of a woman who transmogrifies into a fox during a woodland walk with her husband has won the BBC national short story award.
"She picks up her pace and begins to walk strangely on the tips of her toes, her knees bent, her heels lifted. Then she leans forward and in a keen, awkward position begins to run..."
The darkly erotic tale, Mrs Fox, by critically acclaimed writer Sarah Hall, scooped the £15,000 prize at a ceremony in London last night. Hall’s story is "loosely based on a 1922 novella called Lady into Fox by David Garnett", the author said. "Though it’s now on my shelf, I haven’t yet read the book. My version is an homage to what sounds like a very brave and odd piece of fiction indeed."
Hall added: "I am fascinated by situations in which human beings are challenged and placed outside the usual codes of conduct. How do we act then? Do we become better versions, worse versions, or just different versions, of ourselves? The husband in Mrs Fox must contend with a lot, and ultimately redefine his concept of happiness. As for Mrs Fox herself – was she happier as a human, or is she in her element now?"
Arts critic and broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, who chaired the award’s judges, said: "From the outset of our deliberations we were all seduced by our winning story. The poetic use of language, the dexterity and originality of the prose made Mrs Fox utterly unique.
Inspired by the classic literary motif of metamorphosis, this thoroughly modern interpretation asks unsettling questions about our relationships to each other and to the natural world."
The all-women shortlist for this year’s prize included debut author Lucy Wood, who received the £3,000 runner-up prize for her Notes from the House of Spirits; as well as Lionel Shriver, Lisa Blower and Lavinia Greenlaw, all of whom receive £500.
Hall has won a string of literary accolades since her debut Haweswater in 2002. Her second novel, The Electric Michelangelo, was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2004, and her third novel, The Carhullan Army, won the John Llewellyn Rhys prize in 2007. Her 2011 short-story collection The Beautiful Indifference was described as "another leap forward, into a landscape entirely her own".
