Creative writing success at Daunt Books Competition
Published by St Mary's Calne on Wednesday 3rd of June 2026
Writers’ Guild were thrilled to celebrate yet more creative writing success for St Mary’s Calne scribblers, as the talented Sophie O (LV) scooped up success in the prestigious – and highly competitive – Daunt Books Children’s Short Story Competition 2026.
The organisers of the competition received hundreds of entries from talented young writers all over the world and were blown away by the creativity and breadth of their imaginations. Reflecting the strong culture of writing within the school community, 47 of our young writers entered stories on a wide range of topics.
Sophie’s entry – a beautiful piece entitled Before the Curtain Falls, with haunting echoes of Isherwood’s ‘Goodbye to Berlin!’ and ‘Cabaret!’ – was selected amongst the winning stories. It will be published in an anthology, with cover design by celebrated illustrator Alice Melvin and introduction by award-winning writer Nizrana Farook, author of The Girl Who Stole an Elephant and The Boy Who Saved a Bear.
Sophie has also been invited to a special launch event at Daunt Books on Wednesday 20 May to celebrate the publication of the collection. However, frustratingly, this clashes with those pesky things called GCSEs, so we will be celebrating her success in Writers’ Guild instead.
With lots more opportunities for our talented young scribblers coming up this term, we are delighted to be nurturing the next generation of bestsellers here at St Marys.
Mrs Catherine Bruton, Teacher of English and Writers’ Guild Lead
