Candy and I chatted a bit with Peter (in the green shirt) who had written his story about the Battle of Culloden, and it sounded fascinating. (Details about the six winners here.) Ah! Here's Peter's story, along with the others just posted on the website.

Winners of the Henrietta Branford Writing Competition for young writers

Shortlisted writers and editors for the Branford Boase Award

Editor Charlie Sheppard, writer and award sponsor Jacqueline Wilson, writer, journalist and award judge Damian Kelleher, writer Jason Wallace

You can see a couple more photos on the Bookwitch's blog.

Booktrust's Nikki Marsh and former judge and librarian John Dunne
Here's Candy Gourlay's blog post of the event (mentioning each of the shortlisted books) and the website of Keren David, another shortlisted writer for When I Was Joe (whom I met last year when we did a panel together at the SCBWI conference).
But THE BEST PART of day was being treated to tea earlier in the afternoon at The Wolseley by one of the judges, Damian Kelleher, with our fab colleague Helen Boyle. (I'd done some Kidsweek illustrations for them.) MACAROONS! Cake. Yummy.




Thank you, Damian!! :D