THE room was silent as children from across Huddersfield clung to every word uttered by author Emily Diamand.
For the first time, a reading and writing category has been added to the Mrs Sunderland Festival which culminated in a workshop from the award-winning children’s author.
And with the new class attracting more than 100 entries, Emily praised Huddersfield’s enthusiasm for getting children writing.
She said: “Last year in the spoken reading competition, my book was chosen, which was lovely.
“I was talking to the organisers and we discovered there was no story competition and so we came up with this idea.
“As this was the first year, we only expected to get about a dozen entries and instead we had 111.
“What I was looking for was not perfect spelling or good handwriting. I was interested in stories.
“I was looking for a good story that was going to stick with me and I definitely found some.
“ I have agonised over choosing the winner.”
Yesterday, she held a workshop at Huddersfield Town Hall and children from Grange Moor Juniors, Birkby Juniors, Newsome, Spring Grove, Lindley, Wooldale, Brockholes and Queen Elizabeth Grammar School came along.
Emily, who is currently writing her third book, talked them through how to construct a good story, with a strong plot and characters.
Trustee of the festival and organiser of the workshop Jenny Lockwood said: “For the competition, Emily wrote the first paragraph and then children followed on from there. The story was called Lost.
“This was the first year we have done this but we hope to run it again as it has been so successful.
“The children have been so engaged.
“They have got so involved and have just loved having her here.
“It is very difficult for schools to fund events like this because of their budgets so we are glad that the festival has been able to do this.
“We have been lucky to have support from local company Syngenta who sponsored the event, as they do many others in the community.
“We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Retired Scapegoat Hill primary teacher Susan Whitwham is now a volunteer at the festival.
She said: “It has been very valuable and all the children have been engaged from start to finish and if I was still teaching I would have certainly tried to bring my class along to meet Emily, she has been fantastic.”
The winner, announced after the writing masterclass, was Wooldale student Emily Lord.
The runner-up was Newsome Junior pupil Charlotte Hunter, with Molly Armitage and Joe Bamford from Wooldale in joint third.
To read Emily's short story, go to the next page.
This is the winning short story entry by Wooldale Junior School pupil Emily Lord
The abandoned house was our protection. Hiding behind a solid wall, the rough bricks against my back, it made me feel safe. Sort of. Alec was next to me, still gasping, both of us out of breath after all that running.
“D’you think they’re still following?” I asked.
He shut his eyes, leant his had back on the wall.
“Dunno”.
“Are you going to look?” I asked. Hoping that I wanted anything to happen to him, it was just...even the thought of it was terrifying. It made me feel sick.
Alec shook his head. “Let’s wait a bit”, he said, and I knew he felt the same as me.
So we waited, pressed flat against that wall. It was getting warm by them, and the sky was a pure blue, with just a few fluffy clouds. A breeze rustled the long grass of the overgrown garden, I could hardly believe all this was happening.
I turned to Alec. “What do we do now?” I asked.
He stared up at the clouds for a minute, then looked at me.
“I don’t know” he said, “But I think we’re lost”.
It all started when we were trying to pick the perfect apples for my mums apple pie she was making for the royal visit and we knew just the place for apples fit for a queen.
There was an enormous house at the top of the village called Raven Manor. There were strange rumours going around since the new owners had moved in. We weren’t scared though.
We scrambled up the steep hill to the manor gardens early one morning. The golden glowing sun was only just beginning to rise. Everywhere was silent and still. We thought we would never be caught.
The trees towered over us with big juicy apples swaying on the branched. We are both good climbers so we scrambled up like monkeys and that’s when we heard the voices.
We froze and listened intently, we couldn’t believe what we were hearing. We gasped in astonishment as their evil plot was revealed. A man with a gruff voice was talking of bombs and gunpowder. I knew instantly it was to do with the royal visit.
I held my breath feeling terribly sick. I shouted to Alec, “run for your life!” So we did. We sprinted down the hill nearly falling over our own feet. I was too scared to look behind but I knew they where there. “Head for the abandoned house”. I screamed to Alec.
I cannot describe how scared and sick I was feeling. I clung on to Alec’s hand so tightly that my hand ached. I whispered into Alec’s ear “Do you think they’re still there?”
Just at that moment a gruff vice said “I think they went that way”. I heard a stomping of feet and then they were gone. Me and Alec didn’t dare come out even though they had gone, or had they? I wished I was somewhere else. I wanted to be back at home at the farm where I lived with all the animals.
But I thought I could hear something, a sniffing sound. For one terrible moment I thought they were back out from what I could make out it didn’t look like a man.
Then two big doggy faces appeared. They were my two dogs Shep and Tim I cried with relief as they licked my face. I still did not dare move.
Tim started to bark. “Shush Tim please”, I whispered but Tim wanted to bark and bark.
He ran out of the abandoned house. I reached out trying to grab him but it was too late. He’d gone.
I had to go after him - I just had to. If anything happened to him I would blame myself. So I stepped out Alec was behind me and Shep by my side but of the corner of my eye I saw a man running and shouting at the top of his voice “I’m going to get you, you little worms!”.
I stopped still with fright. The man had a gun, he was getting close and close and then he was no more than a metre away. Tim ran up to him. “No!” I screamed as Tim went for his legs biting and snarling.
Then it happened. A bang. Tim fell to the floor. I ran to him crying and crying. I fell to my knees. I pulled Tim into my arms and held him, buried my head in is soft fur. I pulled my head up only to see my dear Shep going for the man.
She wrestled him to the floor and injured him so badly that he now couldn’t get up. Alec and Shep ran to me. Alec looked at me and said “we better take him home quick. Maybe mother will know what to do”.
“Yes, ok”, I replied. Together we carried him home but Tim could not be saved. I will never forget my beloved dog,
He risked his life for me and I could never repay him.
By Emily Lord
Class 6
Wooldale Junior School
