Young Writer of the Year awards - 26 May 2006

A glittering reception took place at the RAC Club in Pall Mall recently for the Young Writer of the Year Awards.

Covering the spectrum of TV, radio and print journalism, the judges were: Chris Rogers, Joanna Bogle, Bess Twiston Davies, Cassandra Jardine and Greg Watts.

The theme of the competition was: 'unsung heroes and heroines' . The top prize - the Young Journalist Award - went to Christine Parreno, who wrote about her grandfather who witnessed a murder in the Philippines and risked his life to inform the police. The judges described the article as a "very moving" piece of work.

Eleanor Mary Kirk, won the Junior Writer Award, for a piece about her godfather, John Monckton.

There were first second and third prizes and five commendations in each category - 16 winners in all. The five junior commendations went to: James Wilkinson, Elsa Rose Frere, Matthew Cyrson, Josh Fisher-Horas, Joshua Butchart. 2nd junior prize went to Phoebe Gibson, 3rd to Maciek Kozlowski. Senior category commendations: Rita Hughes, Matt Thompson, Louise Carr, Jonathan Sims, Nathan Chalmers. 3rd prize Catherine Children , 2nd prize Georgina Cotton.

Prizes included work experience in television and on a national newspaper and books.

The competition was sponsored by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Dawliffe Hall Educational Foundation, with Tamezin magazine - a magazine written and designed for teenagers by teenagers from the Tamezin Club.