Lockdown has changed the way we live - but it has also inspired members of a popular local writers' group to create an inspiring collection of short stories.

The Slough Writers meet every week at the Palmer Arms pub in Dorney during more normal times - but they have been continuing to do so online in recent months.

They hold regular short story writing competitions and their most recent based on the theme of spring lockdown saw members writing about loneliness, anxiety, frustration, death, boredom and the rediscovery of love and beauty - all inspired by the current situation.

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It was judged by members and first prize went to Lorraine Forrest-Turner for her story Chinchilla Rats at Machu Pichu.

The story describes how a tired marriage gradually reignites when life’s intrusions are taken away - in the same way as the chinchillas returned to a famous Inca citidel in Peru when lockdown kept tourists away.

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Lorraine, 63, is a marketing copywriter who lives in Stanley Close, Marlow with her husband Andy. They have two grown up children.

She said: "Writers always say they need time and you would have thought lockdown was perfect for it.

"But actually it is quite hard to focus. I had to really motivate myself to write when I entered the competition."

Runner up was Sonya Weiss with Ellie, a story of a little girl searching for her sick mummy in a place full of people too preoccupied to notice her.

Edward Harte took third place with his story A History of Nordic Dreams. Unaware he is on a ventilator, a Covid patient tries to make sense of a curious time spent with friends in Stockholm.

Two stories were highly recommended – Lockdown by John Brown and Mrs Reynolds' Moment by Harvey Martin.