Beverley Birch was shortlisted three times for the Branford Boase Award in recognition of the editor’s role in nurturing new talent and, as a prolific author, she was also nominated for the Carnegie medal. Hampshire Writers’ Society is most appreciative to Beverley, who graciously came to our rescue by agreeing to be our April adjudicator as well as our speaker. In return, our members managed to supply entries that made it difficult for her to choose the usual two highly commended places. The competition, ‘Write a children’s story, inspired by a well-known story for children’, meant that after choosing 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place, Beverley was unable to decide and ended up choosing four additional pieces to praise.

1^st Place: Cass Morgan – Mrs Bilious

2^nd Place: Kristin Tridimas – A Koala Named Sydney

3^rd Place: Matthew Cross – George and the Dragon

Highly Commended: Annie…