Utopian inspirations: The Good Place by Rebecca F. John

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It may be 500 years since Thomas More introduced his fictitious island of Utopia and its inhabitants to us but we are still arguing about what he actually meant. Take the word 'utopia' itself: depending on how you spell it in the original Greek it can mean either a 'good place' or 'nowhere'. This ambiguity is explored by the Welsh writer Rebecca F. John in her short story The Good Place written specially for BBC World Service. The reader is Bettrys Jones and the series producer Radek Boschetty. Rebecca F. John was born in 1986, and grew up in Pwll, a small village on the South Wales coast. She holds a BA in English with Creative Writing, an MA in Creative Writing, and a PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education and Training. Her short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4Extra. In 2015, her short story The Glove Maker's Numbers was shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. She is the winner of the PEN International/New Voices Award 2015. Her first short story collection, Clown's Shoes, is available now through Parthian. Her first novel, The Haunting of Henry Twist, is forthcoming with Serpent's Tail in 2017.