William Prichard & Co A Novella-in-Flash

Diane Simmons lives in Bath, UK. She has been widely published in magazines such as New Flash Fiction Review, Mslexia, Splonk and FlashBack Fiction and placed in numerous flash fiction and short story writing competitions. She is the author of three published novellas-in-flash: Finding a Way (Ad Hoc Fiction), An Inheritance (V. Press) and A Tricky Dance (Alien Buddha). Both Finding a Way & An Inheritance were shortlisted in the UK Saboteur Awards. She has been a co-director of National Flash Fiction Day (UK) since 2018 and is a former director of Flash Fiction Festivals (UK) and reader for Bath Short Story Award. An editor for FlashFlood, Diane has judged flash fiction contests such as Micro Madness NZ, Flash 500, NFFD Micro Competition and the online Flash Fiction Festival and has co-edited all six Flash Fiction Festival anthologies.

Quotes

Another masterly novella-in-flash from Diane Simmons, William Prichard & Co is a quiet tale of the 65 years of one family's perambulator business. In just 33 short but satisfying episodes, Simmons manages to portray an entire historical saga. By letting us into the inner life of each character while also showing them through the eyes of others, she builds a fully rounded picture of each family member, and, by the time we reach the moving last line, we are sorry to have to let them go. William Prichard & Co tells a deceptively simple story that plumbs surprising emotional depths.

-Fiona J Mackintosh, author of The Yet Unknowing World

Diane Simmons is such an excellent author of historical fiction. You know you're reading something that has been meticulously researched, but that research never shows up in info-dumps and is instead filtered through the examined lives of the Prichard family. This novella holds up a mirror to society and the changes in attitudes, industrial practices and politics as one family moves through the end of the 19th century into the 20th. There is humour, there is romance, there is emancipation, but most of all, there is an engrossing story of family dynamics that draws the reader in and makes us root for our favourites. This is historical fiction at its best.

-Karen Jones, author of Burn It All Down

Diane Simmons has done it again! Back with her latest novella-in-flash, Diane presents us thirty-three glimpses into the lives of three generations connected to a perambulator factory. The novella starts with the establishment of the business in 1886 and traces the family members' highs and lows for the 65-year span of the business, with everything from class, empire, women's suffrage, mass production, and the changing role of women in the workplace swirling around in the background. With the focus on the individual, human stories at the centre of the story, Diane paints a compelling picture of their celebrations and struggles through keen observation and compelling storytelling. William Prichard & Co is everything we've come to expect from Diane's writing: well-researched, sharply written, and full of heart.

-Ingrid Jendrzejewski, Co-Director of National Flash Fiction Day



Acknowledgements

William Prichard & Co is a work of fiction, but my inspiration for writing the novella-in-flash came from family letters, catalogues and other material that related to the pram factory founded by my husband's great-grandfather in the late nineteenth century. I would very much like to thank everyone in the family for providing me with valuable information and anecdotes, particularly my sister-in-law Sarah Traynier, who climbed into her loft several times to retrieve photographs; my sister-in-law Rosie Simmons for her research and enthusiasm and my late father-in-law Tony Simmons who wrote to me many years ago with memories of the factory and his grandfather.