BBC Radio 2 unveils 500 Words winners at the Tower of London

Published: 16 June 2017

Each year we never fail to be astonished, surprised and moved by the weight of effort that the kids of the UK put in to producing their own unique 500 Words magical creations. Here’s to this year and bring on 2018!
— Chris Evans

Now in its seventh year, the competition received a record 131,798 entries - over 8,000 more than last year - from children aged between five and 13 from all over the UK. Each child composed an original work of fiction using no more than 500 words.

Broadcast live from the Tower of London, Honorary Judge, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, presented the Gold winners with their prizes. The Bronze, Silver and Gold winning stories across the two age categories (5-9 years and 10-13 years) were announced and read out on-air by celebrity narrators including David Walliams, Jenny Agutter OBE, David Suchet CBE, John Bishop, Olivier award-winning Noma Dumezweni and actor Sir Derek Jacobi CBE. Plus there was live music from One Direction’s Niall Horan and Olly Murs. This year, all those attending the final also received free entry to the Tower of London for the day.

For a second year, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall joined the judging panel of the competition as an Honorary Judge. The other four judges were award-winning and best-selling authors Malorie Blackman, Charlie Higson, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Francesca Simon. They had the gruelling task of selecting the six winners from a shortlisted Top 50 stories by the talented young writers.

Chris Evans says: “Each year we never fail to be astonished, surprised and moved by the weight of effort that the kids of the UK put in to producing their own unique 500 Words magical creations. Here’s to this year and bring on 2018!”

Lewis Carnie, Head of Radio 2 says “I’m so proud that Radio 2, as well as being the most listened to radio station in the UK, is home to one of the world’s most popular children’s story-writing competitions. The success of 500 Words is down to the huge behind-the-scenes team effort at Radio 2, led by the initiative’s creator Chris Evans, who galvanised a record breaking 131,798 children to write a story. Thanks to the young authors, their parents, the 7,000 volunteer teachers and librarians who read all the entries, and the final Judging Panel, who spent hours poring over the Top 50 to decide the winners. Special thanks go to HRH The Duchess of Cornwall for her role once again as an Honorary Judge.”

The winners are:

5-9 category

Gold

The Kindest Of Strangers by Lauren Cook, aged 9 from Buckinghamshire. Read by Jenny Agutter.

Malorie Blackman says: “This is such a beautifully written, moving story with a killer twist. This story managed to convey so much in a mere 500 words. I loved it.”

Silver

Professor Sluggo And The Prosthetic Limbs by Lucinda Levene , aged 8 from Hertfordshire. Read by Sir Derek Jacobi.

Frank Cottell-Boyce says: “Had one of the most confidently bonkers opening sentences I’ve ever read. The amazing thing was the rest of the story lived up to that opening, including the hilarious last sentence.”

Bronze

The Lady Who Grew A Beard by Jed Wherlock, aged 9 from Caerphilly. Read by John Bishop

Frank Cottrell Boyce says: “What we all loved about this story was that it had a delightfully bonkers premise to which the writer then applied really rigorous logic, working out all the things that might happen if a lady did have an intelligent beard. It was a real high-wire act of a story.”

10-13 category

Gold

Mr B B Wolf Vs. Miss R R Hood - Evidence For The Courts by Livia Turner, aged 13 from Cambridgeshire. Read by David Walliams.

Francesca Simon says: I loved this story. There are many fairy tale re-tellings, but this one managed something fresh and different… The character development is also superb - I especially liked the way Mr Wolf turns from jovial official to menacing defender of his patch, and how Miss Hood is a spoiled brat who just behaves worse and worse. Fun, thought-provoking, threatening and sophisticated. Bravo!

Silver

Jack And Jill by Ashleigh May, aged 13 from Surrey. Read by David Suchet.

Charlie Higson says: “I love horror and this is a really sinister and creepy story. There’s a really strong Gothic atmosphere and sense that something awful is going to happen. The mood is very cleverly set up and the clever use of rhymes adds an unsettling element… I like the fact the story doesn’t answer all these questions, and it’s like watching the beginning of a really scary horror film…”

Bronze

My Saviour by Evie McKeon, aged 12 from Kent. Read by Noma Dumezweni

Malorie Blackman says: “A heartfelt story told from the point of view of a child who copes with sudden blindness with the aid of Rampa, a seeing eye dog. I found this an evocative, well-written story.”

The 500 Words competition was created by Chris Evans for his Radio 2 Breakfast Show, which has an audience of 9.38 million listeners per week. Children aged 13 and under from around the UK are asked to compose an original work of fiction using no more than 500 words. The competition promotes literacy among children, encouraging them to explore their creativity through writing and reading. It provides them with a wealth of tips from published writers and other resources to support their learning. The entries were marked by over 7,000 volunteer teachers and librarians from around the UK. The Reading Agency then drew up a shortlist of the Top 50 stories for the judging panel. Past guest narrators who have read out the winning stories at the final have included Julie Walters, Tom Hiddleston, Warwick Davis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Paloma Faith.

Following the Oxford University Press (OUP) analysis of the entries for the 2017 500 Words competition, a wealth of fascinating insights into the lives of British children and their creative use of English emerged.

OUP selected Trump as the Children’s Word of the Year, owing to its significant increase in usage by entrants writing in this year’s competition and the sophisticated way in which children use it to convey humour and satire, and evoke powerful descriptive imagery. Each year children show a keen interest in contemporary affairs and world events, and this year, Donald Trump took office as President of the United States in the same week that the 500 Words competition launched. Trump is mentioned in a wide variety of contexts, from the US elections and politics, to tales of space, aliens and superheroes, giving expression to children’s creativity, playfulness and humour. Children also use the noun to invent new characters names including Boggle Trump and Snozzle Trump.

Children also played with blends, suffixes and prefixes to create new words improvised around Trump. In fact there were more than 100 instances of words such as Trumplestiltskin, Trumpyness, Trumpido, Trumpeon and Trumpwinningtastic.

Gaming words appear in the 500 Words stories every year, but this year it was the craze for Pokémon GO, in which gamers pursued electronic characters in real-life locations via their smart phones and tablets, that had the largest impact on kids’ imaginations. The term social media also increased in frequency from 2016 to 2017 along with mentions of certain social media sites and much of the associated vocabulary. Talk is now of vlogs rather than blogs and 2015 Children’s Word of the Year, hashtag, reappeared this year. The word superhero was also used many times, by both boys and girls. Batman and Superman were top characters (and also in the top 10 of all people mentioned), but a wide range of creative and descriptive vocabulary was seen in stories as children invented characters using the prefix super.

500 Words was first launched by BBC Radio 2 Chris Evans’ Breakfast Show in 2011. 500 Words 2017 launched on Monday 16 January.

HD2