St Mary's Calne
She’s only gone and done it! Over the holidays, Norah (LVI) attended a glittering prizegiving event in St Paul’s Cathedral, as the annual Love Letters to London writing competition, run by The London Society, invited writers from across the country to celebrate our beautiful capital city in words. Knowing her entry had been shortlisted, Norah was on tenterhooks for the big reveal!
This year, the competition received over 800 submissions—the highest number yet. ‘The quality of writing was outstanding,’ said the judges. ‘With powerful and imaginative poetry and prose that explored the city’s past, present, and future, as well as personal experiences and reflections on life in London.’ However, Norah’s heart sank as the winners for the 12- 18 Category were read out, and her name was not amongst them. But disappointment quickly turned to elation as Norah learned two surprising facts in the space of 10 seconds….
Firstly, she had, in fact, inadvertently entered her poem into the wrong category – the Over 18 category (note to all aspiring writers: always put your age on the entry form!)
Secondly, despite this seemingly catastrophic error, Norah had beaten hundreds of other adult poets to win an incredible second prize!
This incredible achievement also earned Norah £250 prize money – her first ‘pay cheque’ in her journey as a professional author.
Norah, who is a keen member of SMC’s weekly Writers’ Guild and who hopes to study English at Durham University before pursuing a career in publishing, commented that the prize, ‘Gave me such a rush of genuine exhilaration that I think I will be chasing this sort of feeling forever!’
You can read more about the competition, see pictures from the prize giving here: Announcing the Winners of the 2025 Love Letters to London Competition - The London Society
And you can read Norah’s wonderful entry ‘A Date with London’ here: https://londonsociety.org.uk/love-letters-2025/
Huge congratulations to Norah, and with lots more exciting writing opportunities up this term, we hope her success will encourage more of our talented
SMC scribblers to get entering (in the correct categories, please!)
Forthcoming writing competitions:
Henrietta Banford Writing Competition 2025 Closing date - 30 May
The Foyles Young Poets Closing date - 31 July
D H Lawrence Children’s Prize Closing date - 31 May
The Martha Mills Young Writers’ Prize Closing date - 6 June
Mrs Catherine Bruton, English Department and the Writers' Guild