Magazine Minute: Short story prize, House of Hackney, David Arnold and Emmanuel Macron

The very best of The Sunday Business Post Magazine this weekend

SHORT STORY PRIZE 2017

At the end of last year, we invited readers to submit a short story to our second annual competition, held in association with Penguin Ireland. Over 700 of you responded, and this Sunday we reveal the winning story, by Ríona Judge-McCormack. No 3 Western Deep caught the judges’ attention for its spare and lyrical evocation of an anomalous story, set in South Africa. Stellar entries from our three runners-up, David O’Neill, Anthony McGuinness and Fionn Murray, are also featured. Work, love, alienation: human experience in all its complexity is laid bare here.

INSIDE HOUSE OF HACKNEY

“Moderation is a fatal thing,” said Oscar Wilde, as “nothing succeeds like excess.” We’re guessing Frieda Gormley would be inclined to agree. Gormley, who was raised in Donnybrook, is the London-based owner of international interior design empire House of Hackney. The company, which counts Liberty and Selfridges among its high end stockists, was the brainchild of the Dublin woman and her husband Javvy M Royle, and has built a compelling business on the back of bold, old-world prints. In this week’s Magazine, Gormley reflects on genesis of their success. “When I became a mother I became more socially conscious, and more interested in manufacturing special products close to home,” she tells us.

INTERVIEW: DAVID ARNOLD

Composer David Arnold has penned the soundtrack for films including James Bond, Godzilla and Stargate, as well as the hit BBC series Sherlock. Ahead of his performance of Independence Day Live at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, he explains to Nadine O’Regan how he’s trying to “reduce the size of the room from a concert hall to a living room”. Arnold reveals what first drew him to the art and how he helped to make Damien Rice an international star. He also looks back on his role as music director of the London Olympics and the thrill of live performance.

ZEITGEIST: LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ

The French could be on the advent of voting in their youngest ever president, Emmanuel Macron. A former economy minister, the 39-year-old has also recently been making headlines for his marriage to a woman 25 years his senior. "Little by little, he overcame all my resistance in an unbelievable way, with patience," Brigitte Trogneux has said of their romance. Do such couple have the balance right? This week, we talk age gaps with experts including Dr Sandra L Caron, one of a small number of sociologists to have studied relationships between younger men and older women.