17th February, 2020
Congratulations young winners!
We’re delighted to announce the winners of our 2019 YWSP competition!
Our category winners this year coincidentally both hail from the county of Cheshire. First prize in the 11-15 years category goes to Ide Crawford (14), from Macclesfield, for her story The Whale’s Way, and in the 16-19 years category the winner is Charlotte Lee (19), from Crewe, with her story The Best Thing.
Written in North Yorkshire dialect, Ide’s winning entry The Whale’s Way is set in late 18th Century Whitby. A young wife waits on the headland with her baby for her whaler husband to return. Finally he arrives and meets his child for the first time on the jetty. But the little family’s joyful reunion is devastated by the arrival of the press gang, and before long they are separated once again. The prize judges described it as ‘a tour de force.’
Ide was inspired by folk songs from the North-East of England – about the sea, Arctic whaling, and the press gang, as she explains:
‘The whalers set sail for Greenland in early spring and returned in October. I was fascinated by the inversion of the usual pattern of feeling and association that this suggested; spring would have been a time of parting and sadness, autumn of hope and revival as the sailors returned with well-laden ships.’
Charlotte Lee’s winning entry The Best Thing takes place at the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri where Otto and Frank are caught up in a media frenzy. Nervously, they unveil their invention – a bread-slicing machine – to wild enthusiasm. They wonder if they will go down in history alongside inventors like Edison, but agree – toasting their achievement with ginger ale because of Prohibition – that success in itself may be enough for them.
The judges loved the breezy style and the neatly placed early 20th Century USA historical detail in this refreshingly original story.
Charlotte found inspiration for her story whilst browsing through a book of inventions. She says:
‘The tale of Otto Rohwedder’s invention of sliced bread was so humble, yet so impactful and we still use the phrase ‘the best thing since sliced bread’ today. The ultimate message I found of Otto’s story was that no dream is too big or too small, as long as you have the courage to pursue it.’
The two category winners receive a £500 travel grant, a published book of their work, and a 2-day trip to the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland where they are presented with their prizes.
The judges also selected a further seven young writers to commend for the Prize. Calypso Lewis from North London was runner-up in the 11-15 category, with Ella Cox from Essex, Ranuli Jayawardhana from Sunbury-on-Thames and Daisy Stewart Henderson from Glasgow all receiving highly commended awards. Ellana Cowan, Turner Ruggi and Lucy Thynne, all hailing from different corners of London, were runners-up in the 16-19 years category.
Former literary editor of The Scotsman David Robinson joined the judging panel this year, alongside the award-winning author Elizabeth Laird (Chair); Young Walter Scott Prize director Alan Caig Wilson and literary agent Kathryn Ross. Chair of the Judging panel Elizabeth Laird said:
‘Watch out, adult historical novelists! A new generation of brilliant young authors is coming up fast, and our Young Walter Scott prizewinners are hot on your heels!’
Congratulations to our winners, and well done to everyone who entered this year – we had a record number of entries, representing a remarkable geographical and historical span.