Congratulations again to all of the writers who were shortlisted and longlisted in the Opening Lines contest. We enjoyed reading the beginnings of all of these novels.

It’s been a hard choice indeed to pick the 5 winners from the shortlist and all of the shortlisted novels have got so much to recommend them. Our winners are the ones that connected us to a narrator, lingered in the mind the most and set up questions that just had to be answered. So well done to our five winning writers!

The Winners

• Blue Is Not A Colour by Laura McNeil
• Lifesaver by Natalie McMath
• Scott/Shackleton by Rod Cookson
• Split Fortune by Sharon Boyle
• The Embrace by Stephen Gallagher

All five writers win a full manuscript review from Retreat West founder, Amanda Saint.