War In The Woodlands — David Jones

David Jones was born in 1941 in the industrial north. The factories have all gone now and the trees and woodlands have been allowed to thrive, providing a home for many kinds of British wildlife.Cycle paths and nature trails now cover the neighbourhood where both red and grey squirrels can be seen to live in close proximity and they don't even squabble.We have badgers, stoats and weasels, and occasionally we will get a visit from a fox.This is the environment that provided the inspiration for this story.I have read literally scores of scripts for Writers Workshop, but I can safely say that yours is the most unusual I have ever come across. From start to finish I was amused, arrested, moved and made to think, hard, by this extraordinary juxtaposition of deeply detailed military history with an almost equally detailed examination of squirrel life. I do suspect that lurking in your tale is an anti-war allergy of some power. The effect of your message when applied to cute little creatures has a more telling impact. That is the true measure of your acheivement in writing this rather subtle tale.Haydn Middleton, author.c/o Writers' Workshop