Writing Brought Us to the Palace

Join Matthew Bannister inside the grand rooms of Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition award ceremony.

It's the world's oldest schools' international writing competition which invites young writers from the Commonwealth to submit a piece of writing based on a theme. This year's theme was 'A Commonwealth for Peace'. From more than 12,000 entries, four girls have been successful. Their prize was to travel to London and receive their award from the Duchess of Cornwall. We meet the winners, Annika Turon-Semmens, Ariadna Sullivan, Hiya Chowdhury, and Ry Galloway.

Also, illustrious writer and comedian David Walliams tells us how he ended up writing a children's book about a boy in a dress, Nigerian author Ben Okri describes writing while homeless, and Romesh Gunesekera reminisces about reading westerns as a boy in Sri Lanka.

Image: The four young writers from around the world who are winners of the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Prize, pictured with the Duchess of Cornwall.
Credit: BBC