Alternative Stories and Fake Realities
Alternative Stories and Fake Realities is the anthology podcast of the spoken-word audio production company Alternative Stories.
Working with poets, novelists and dramatists we tell stories and share the work of writers including radio plays, short fiction, book excerpts and writer interviews. We also explore the things that inspire writers including folklore and mythology as well as sharing content from other podcasts produced by Alternative Stories.
With almost 150 podcasts to choose from we hope there'll be something here to enjoy if you're into literature, books and the spoken arts.
Please check out our website https://alternativestories.com/
Alternative Stories and Fake Realities
'The Cavalry': A Short Story By Christopher Meredith
Welcome to a new mini series of the Alternative Stories and Fake Realities Podcast
This week we have short fiction from Welsh poet, novelist and short story writer Christopher Meredith. The story you're about to hear is a seasonal piece set in the early 1960s in south Wales. It's called 'The Cavalry' and it's from Chris's brilliant collection 'Brief Lives' which is published by Seren.
You can order a copy of Brief Lives here https://www.serenbooks.com/book/brief-lives/
Christopher Meredith is the award-winning author of five novels and five collections of poetry and also tranlsates Welsh to English. Prizes include an Eric Gregory Award, the Arts Council of Wales Young Writer Prize and the Fiction Prize for his first novel, Shifts. His second novel, Griffri, was shortlisted for the Book of the Year Award. His collection of poems, The Meaning of Flight, was long-listed for The Book of the Year Award 2006. He has given readings all over Britain and Europe as well as in Israel/Palestine and the USA. Born and brought up in Tredegar, he was a steelworker and a schoolteacher before becoming a professor of creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. He lives in Brecon. A collection of six short fictions, titled Brief Lives, was released in 2018.
Find out more about Christopher Meredith by visiting his website here https://christophermeredit9.wixsite.com/website
All content in audio, onscreen and in print is protected and may not be copied or used for any purposes including generative AI/AI training.
Join us next week on the alternative stories and fake realities podcast for award winning audio drama. The Angry House by Thomas Wrightson is a ghost story set in Cornwall in the late 1990s and it was the winner of the 2025 Pen to Print Audio play competition.
Production, sound design and editing in this episode were by Chris Gregory.
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