branford boase award 2011… and cake!

I shot some video footage of the Branford Boase Award ceremony at Walker Books today, thinking my friend Candy Gourlay and her editor, Bella Pearson, might win it for her book, Tall Story. Instead, Jason Wallace and his editor, Charlie Sheppard, took the prize, and their book, Out of Shadows, set in Zimbabwe in the 1980s, does look well worth reading. But what made me go home and upload the video was the kids winning the writing awards. I thought, if I was one of those kids, being presented an award by the amazing writer Jacqueline Wilson, I would want documentation of the event! Then I could – quite rightly – show it off to everyone at school. So here’s the proof:

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!! 😀