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The six winners of this year’s Henrietta Branford Writing Competition were announced on the 9th July. Philip Pullman congratulated each of the winners and gave them their prizes at a ceremony held at Walker Books in London.
The six winners are:
- Naomi Latham, age 14, Sutton Coldfield
- Lily Hawker-Yates, age 16, Stockport
- Thomas Goulding, age 11, Chester-le-Street, Co. Durham
- Matthew Lee, age 16, Wakefield
- Martha Eadie, age 13, Bishops Stortford
- Heather Milton, age 13, Hereford
Click here to read the winning stories.
This year there have been over 600 entries from all over the country, often thanks to the encouragement of teachers and school librarians. Kate Jones of Young Writer magazine judged the stories.
The competition asked budding writers to continue a story-opening written by Linda Buckley-Archer, who last year was highly commended in the Branford Boase Award with her novel Gideon the Cutpurse.
The Henrietta Branford Writing Competition is an annual competition for young people which runs in conjunction with the prestigious Branford Boase Award for debut children’s fiction which was set up in memory of the outstanding children’s writer Henrietta Branford and the gifted editor, Wendy Boase, Editorial Director of Walker Books. They worked together on a number of books, a partnership they greatly enjoyed. They both died of cancer in 1999. Henrietta Branford felt that a children’s writing competition was an important way to find and encourage the writers of the future.
The competition is open to any young writer under the age of 19. Six winners are invited to the celebration party in London at which the Branford Boase Award is given. There they can meet authors, editors, publishers, agents, and other professionals in this field.
Philip Pullman presented each of the six winners with their prizes . There were 600 entries.
The six winners were put in for a draw to win £500 worth of books for their school donated by Peters Books of Birmingham. The lucky ticket was for Naomi Latham's school, Sutton Coldfield Grammer and the prize was presented to her by chairman of Walker Books. David Lloyd.