From Uschi Gatward’s short story collection English Magic. Published by the independent Galley Beggar, in another fine volume from their list. ‘Margate Sands’ is a story of memory and a disjuncture with reality. Two female students, Angela and Lisa, go to Margate in the 1980s, where Angela wishes to return to the ‘shell house’ she saw with her family as a child. She has detailed memories of the visit, even of an old lady and a little shell owl she bought. Tourist information brochures talk of a shell grotto, which the girls visit, but this is not the ‘shell house’ Angela remembers, and she is upset to the point of anger and tears. No one can corroborate the memory. Was it real or manufactured? Years later (2012) Lisa returns to Margate to visit a Tracy Emin exhibition in the newly built Turner Contemporary art gallery. On the way she drops into the tourist information office and reaffirms that the shell house of Angela’s memory does not exist.
As the story ends, there is an ‘ekphrastic element’ in storytelling. Outside the Turner Contemporary, Lisa finds a new Mark Wallinger installation – Sinema Amnesia – overlooking the sea, located in an old shipping container designated – The Waste Land – which shows visitors recordings of a view of the sea from the ‘window’, which is a projection of the view but from the previous day. Lisa observes that “It looks exactly the same as today.” The attendant responds “Doesn’t always”.
Shortlisted for the London Short Story Prize, 2013. Published in English Magic, Galley Beggar, 2021
A Personal Anthology 