The Big Back to School Competition Winners!

The inaugural Browns Books Big Back To School Competition was an exciting opportunity for primary school students to showcase their artistic and creative writing talents. We had some absolutely superb entries from children and schools across the country. We are delighted at the outcome of this competition and would like to thank Nosy Crow for sponsoring and providing a selection of titles to our winners as well as Jade Orlando and Matt Brown for being wonderful judges. We would especially like to thank our participants for their fantastic contributions to the competition.

However, our judges could only choose one winner from each category. 

The winner for our Bookmark design award goes to: 

Aria Gamage - Latymer Prep School 

You can view Aria's winning bookmark here

Aria’s bookmark was printed and will be dispatched in all following serviced orders to celebrate her achievement. 

The winner of the Short Story Competition goes to:

Tilley O’Keeffe - Chillingham Road Primary School

You can view Tilley’s winning story here

Tilley got to ask our judge Matt Brown a few questions about his work as author. Below is a question-and-answer session between our winner and our judge:

1. Where do you write your stories?

I have a desk at home where I write most of the time. However, sometimes the mood might catch me when I'm out and about. I always have a notebook and pen to hand for just such an occasion. I have written stories in my car (while I'm waiting to pick my kids up from something), in cafes, in the park, at other people's houses, out walking my dogs (I use my phone to make notes), in France (I wrote a whole book there once), and at the local leisure centre (more waiting for my kids). 

2. Do you think your stories are always great or do you sometimes look back at them and think ‘I don’t really like that joke’ or ‘it would have been better like this’?

Writing a book can take a really long time. During this time I often think, "well that's not funny" or "that could be better" and so I change it. One of the most important aspects of writing is looking back at your stories and re-writing them (or bits of them). By the time I've finished writing a book I often won't read it again for a long time. Often when I re-read things I've written, I can't remember writing it but they nearly always make me laugh.

3. Do you make up your characters or do you base them on people you see out and about?

I think both. So, if you take Kevin the Vampire, I don't know any vampires and have never seen any vampires in the real world but I have read a lot of stories about vampires. But really, with a character like that I want to make him believable so I use things that I have seen kids do, or say, make Kevin do, or say, them. Or, I think way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way back to when I was ten, and try and remember how I felt about things.

4. If you could talk to one animal which one would you pick? 

I would love to talk to my dogs, Bea and Ziggy, to try and find out which one did a wee on the floor this morning.

5. Are you upset when people don’t like your stories?

Not everyone likes the same things so I don't worry too much if people don't like my stories. One writer friend once told me that if you write stories that you would like to read then that's the greatest thing you can do. 

Thank you all for a fantastic competition and your continued support to Browns Books. We hope you love the winners as much as we do!