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This is an exquisite and subtle short story by the novelist Siobhan Curham. It’s ideal to kick off Authortrek.com’s new series of short stories, because it’s a fun and very humane tale. Terrible Beauty does deal with a very serious issue, yet Siobhan Curham’s treatment never becomes ‘preachy’, because her imperative is always to entertain us, rather than to lead us off on a moral crusade. Furthermore, its fantastical premise could never really work anywhere outside of the medium of the short story. Terrible Beauty’s a slight tale, stretching only to 3 pages, but they're full of drama! And although the tone is light, Terrible Beauty does work on several different levels, and so deserves several re-readings. Siobhan Curham is so excellent at characterisation that you really get to empathise with the character of Ray ‘The Geezer’ George, who’s not quite the man he used to be…