During the whole school assembly which takes place every Monday, Harry McWhirter was congratulated by Mr Taylor for winning first prize in a national writing competition for children aged 8-13.  Jasmine Whitby, also an Amesbury pupil, was one of the six runners up.  The competition was organised by Quercus Publishing to celebrate the publication of a new fantasy book, 'Seven Sorcerers' by a debut author, Caro King.  Harry's winning entry is to be published in the paperback edition of the book, due out in January 2010.

The story is an incredibly imaginative tale about a girl who wakes up to find that her brother has gone missing and worse, nobody but she can remember anything about him.  Her journey to find him takes her into the magical land of the Drift filled with giants and tombfolk where she makes unlikely friends with the faithful Mudman Jik, the bogeyman Skerridge and where she faces the terrible Mr Strood. 

Amesbury Year 7s were asked to write a story of no more than 750 words describing how Mr Strood crossed over from the human world into the Drift and how he became so evil.  Here is an extract from Harry's work which gives a taste of why he won:

"I stood there panting.  I looked up just as it began to rain.  I filled my lungs with cool night air and howled.  I howled for my lost life; my pain and fear; the fear that I was slowly being driven insane.  Then I realised that there was nothing here for me anymore.  The fragile hope that my family might still harbour some love for me was gone; destroyed; obliterated in one single act; one movement....."

Harry is to attend a celebratory tea at Quercus Publishing in January where he will meet Caro King, the author, receive his copy of the book and a goody bag of other children's titles published by Quercus.