Ten short story writers were nominated for Folkestone’s £1000 H G Wells Festival prize. They included a 12 years’ old boy. Stories, handwritten and up to 5000 words in length, came in from the over 80s, as well as teenagers and the 12 year old.
The winner of the annual award, offered by Sandgate Society President, Reg Turnill, 94, was presented with the cheque by Professor Dominic Wells, great grandson of the famous writer, on the steps of The Grand on Sunday 20 September 2009.
The five judges, headed by Ros McCarthy, until recently head of Cobham School for Girls, were unaware of the ages and names of the competitors before they made their selection.
This new 3-day annual Festival celebrates the fact that Wells wrote many of his most famous stories, including Kipps and Mr Polly, when he lived at Spade House, Sandgate, 100 years ago. The award aims to inspire some original new writing talent, particularly among the very young, and perhaps the very old as well.
Here is the list of nominations, in order of age, with the story title and links to the stories of the winner and runners up:
James Riordan, 12 - “Time's Up”
William Jarrett, 13 - “The Invaders from Within” - winner, link below
John Brasington,15 - “My Ascent and Descent from the World”
Jacob Saywell, 15 -
“Back toFolkestone”.
Amy Alice Seager, 16 -
“Love and Longing”
Andrew Barr, 19 - “History”
Martin Cooper, 22 - “Three Weeks in the Life of a Dreamer named Jones”
David Hunter Pybus, 61 - Three stories “To Sleep, Perchance to Dream”, “Secret of the Sun” and “Fairyland Revisited”
David Cowell, 62 - “The Mother of Surprises”
Michael Umbers, 72 -
“A New Tale of the Unexpected”
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