The six winners of this year’s Henrietta Branford Writing Competition were announced on the 6th July. Renowned author and former Children's Laureate Jacqueline Wilson congratulated each of the winners and gave them their prizes at a ceremony held at Walker Books in London.

The six UK winners are:

• Lucy Parkinson age 14 years from Bournemouth
• Olivia Neave age 12 years from Chelmsford, Essex
• Peter Wollweber age 12 years from Fleet, Hampshire
• Maisie Linford age 17 years from Ellesmere Port
• Anna Wren age 16 years from Edinburgh
• Evie Lunn age 10 years from Sheet, near Petersfield

Click here to read the winning stories.

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. This year there have been hundreds of entries from all over the country, often thanks to the encouragement of teachers and school librarians. Nikki Jones of ‘Writeaway!’ judged the stories, based on a starter paragraph from last year’s Branford Boase Award winner, Lucy Christopher.

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. Entrants must complete a story begun by the previous year’s winner.