Imaginations take flight as young writers put pen to paper in Ely

Budding young authors from across Ely took up the challenge to write story using no more than 501 words.

Around 80 children entered the Ely 501 challenge sponsored by Burrows Bookshop and Mr Simms sweet shop and the winners have now been announced.

Renowned children’s authors Pippa Goodhart and Julian Sedgwick, who both live locally, judged the competition, which had two categories: six to nine and 10 to 13.

Sixteen finalists attended a special prize-giving ceremony at the Old Courthouse last Saturday (July 4) when the overall winners were announced.

Each finalist was presented with a certificate and six young writers also were awarded highly commendeds.

Harry Marsham, 7, scooped the overall prize in the younger category with Ben Coney winning the older age group.

They were each awarded a trophy.

Annabel Reddick, of Burrows Bookshop, said: “This is the first year we have run the competition. We promoted it to all the local schools and allowed children to choose whatever they like to write about. For those who needed a bit of a helping hand to get started we offered six starter lines for them use.

“We were really impressed with the quality of the writing and the imaginative stories the children created. We were delighted with the number of entries and we are hoping that we can build on this for next year.”