Jeremy Corbyn and Jackie Collins' Empire State Date

If this particular news item passed you by in the heat of the EU referendum, it would be because it didn't happen. It's from a Writers Connect warm-up exercise back on 22^nd May.

I gave each contributor three slips of paper and asked them to write a public figure on the first, another public figure on the second and a well-known place on the third. Then we laid all of these out on the table to see what our choices were. I asked the group to pick out two characters and a location, and create a vignette of this.

I didn't randomly assign these names and places to individual contributors as some people might not know who these people were, or might not be familiar with the location.

I picked out Jeremy Corbyn and Jackie Collins and I placed them in the observatory of the Empire State Building. With 10 mins on the clock, here's my interpretation:

“For God's sake, Jeremy. Do up your top button.” Jackie Collins leant over the telescope, swinging it to face him.

“It won't reach,” he said, fingertips at his collar demonstrating.

“I'm quite sure you could afford a tailor. Can't you claim it on expenses like the rest of your lot?”

Jeremy Corbyn couldn't deny, that despite her decrepit age and appearance, Jackie still carried a certain aura, her gold necklace still gleaming in the halflight of the Manhattan sunset.

“Some of us have ethics,” he said. “Not all of us want to do that. Besides,” he looked out through the diamond-shaped frame, over the waters and into Brooklyn, “It's cheaper back home.”

“What does this make you feel, Jeremy? Does it not inspire the heart?”

And then I ran out of time and that was the end of Jeremy Corbyn's story. Hmm, how ironic.