East Cambridgeshire writers Rosemary Westwell, Hayley Humphrey and Mary McGuire held an inaugural Writers’ Day in Ely Library, on Saturday.

Mrs Westwell opened the event and talked about her novel John, Dementia and Me, Ms Humphrey shared her experience of being inspired to write quickly and at length and Mrs McGuire spoke about the trials and tribulations of writing a novel.

Other speakers included experienced writer, Mary Nichols, who gave practical guidance on writing and presenting a novel, librarian Brenda Mead speaking about what readers like and what your library can offer and Elaine Ewart talking about the Fenland Poet Laureate Awards and Fen Speak.

Other speakers were James Steller, who gave a motivational talk about how he started writing and talked about self publishing, while Stephanie Hale gave advice for first time authors.

At the end of the day, the short story winners were announced by the mayor of Ely, Councillor Lis Every.

First prize went to In Our Time by Francis Woods, writing as Lisa Woods; second prize went to Return to Cortona by Margaret Ayres; and third prize went to Old Ghosts by Josie Gowler.

Highly recommended were Hell’s Kitchen by Leane Moden, Unplanned Journey by Lorna Sargeant, and Crocodile and Apple Tree by Jennifer Richmond.