Ide marches on with historic win in writing comp
ATEENAGER who is schooled at home can bask in past glory after winning a historical writing prize.
Ide Crawford, 14, of Kershaw Grove, Macclesfield, claimed top honours in the 11-15-year-old’s category of the Young Walter Scott Prize.
The award tasks youngsters with writing a piece of short fiction set in an era before they were born.
Ide’s, entitled The Whale’s Way, was written in North Yorkshire dialect and set in 18th century Whitby.
It tells the story of a man who returns home from a whaling expedition to see his wife and newborn child but the reunion is ruined by the arrival of a press gang.
The piece was inspired by folk songs of north east England and has won Ide a £500 travel grant, a published book of her work and a twoday trip to the Borders Book Festival in Scotland.
Ide said: “The whalers set sail for Greenland in early spring and returned in October.
“I was fascinated by the inversion of the usual pattern of feeling and association that this suggested. Spring would have been a time of parting and sadness, autumn of hope and revival as the sailors returned with well-laden ships.
”I’m so honoured to win the award. The Walter Scott prize embodies all my favourite things.”
Judges said the awards saw a dramatic increase in entrants this year.
Chair of the judging panel Elizabeth Laird said: “Watch out adult historical novelists, a new generation of brilliant young authors is coming up fast.”