500 Words 2012 storywriting competition launched

BBC Radio 2 Executive Producer Helen Thomas writes for the BBC Radio blog today launching the second annual 500 WORDS short story writing competition for children, In addition to naming the members of the already secured judging panel including Dame Jame Jacqueline Wilson, Chalie Higson and David Walliams, she also shares BBC Radio 2 breakfast show host Chris Evans' experience presenting the programme in which the 2011 winners featured.

Chris Evans described it as one of the most moving programmes he's ever been involved in - and the reaction the show received via text and email really did bear that out.

We had truckers telling us they had pulled over at the side of the road in floods of tears, people unable to leave the house until they heard how a particular story concluded, and kids that were refusing to get out of the car at school, because they wanted to know which tale could possibly top the one they had just heard!

It was a very different Radio 2 Breakfast Show that the nation woke up to that morning, but it was one we were all immensely proud to have been involved in.

Read the rest of this entry on the BBC Radio Blog

• Find out more about the competition on the 500 Words website.
• Read some of the stories submitted to last year's competition.