Paterson Joseph reads Nice Dog by Vee Walker, the fourth story shortlisted for the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award, followed by an interview with the author on BBC Radio 4's Front Row Podcast presented and produced by Rick Woska
BBC sounds music Radio podcasts hello and welcome back to the BBC short story podcast, where this week we're showcasing the five shortlisted stories from the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University.
Today's story is the fourth shortlisted entry and is written by V.
Walker, a former museums and heritage consultant from Scotland.
Her story, Nice Dog is a highly original and funny detective story narrated by Doobie, a chihuahua with an intrepid nose.
The reader is Patterson Joseph.
Nice dog by V.
Walker, read by Paterson Joseph.
Bonjour.
My name is Dubie.
I live in the great french city of Nice, up a narrow, dark passage at the foot of the castle hill.
Once tourists would only have found the Alle de l'Ancien Lavoie if they were lost.
But now it is marked on all the maps of the old town.
This is for three reasons.
The first is that it contains the only marble washing trough to remain in the whole of Nice.
Such a strange choice to wash off one's smell, is it not?
It is smell which says the most about any animal.
Where was I?
Yes.
Secondly, almost alone in the hall of Nice, our alley never gets any sun.
It is narrow and twisted and ancient and blissfully cool in summer.