BBC 500 Words Finalists celebrated at Buckingham Palace with Her Majesty The Queen
Today Buckingham Palace played host to the Grand Final of BBC 500 Words, the UK's most celebrated children's writing competition. 50 young literary talents were invited to a reception hosted by The Queen, in recognition of their remarkable stories.
Her Majesty has a longstanding commitment to championing literacy and creative writing, supporting the 500 Words competition every year since 2015.
The six outstanding winners of the competition were crowned, with their identities to be revealed in a special episode of The One Show airing on World Book Day® (7pm, Thursday 6 March, BBC One and iPlayer). Audiences will be transported to Buckingham Palace where this momentous occasion was captured on film today.
Her Majesty invited a host of celebrity readers including Olivia Colman, McFly's Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones, Matt Lucas, Rose Ayling-Ellis, JB Gill and Rob Brydon to Buckingham Palace for this special episode of The One Show with Alex Jones and Roman Kemp.
500 Word judges, Sir Lenny Henry, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Francesca Simon, Charlie Higson, and Malorie Blackman also attended the special event. Gladiators Fire and Nitro were also on hand to help celebrate the finalists.
Each of the finalist's stories are available to read now on the BBC Teach website, alongside audio versions recorded by the BBC Radio Drama Company.
Notes
• At the event, the bronze, silver and gold winners of both age groups, 5-7 and 8-11, received a selection of exciting prizes, including having their stories read by famous faces and a bundle of books to help continue their love of the written word.
• The two gold winners received the height of judge, Sir Lenny Henry, in books and 500 books for their schools.
• Silver winners received the height of Her Majesty in books, and bronze winners received the average height of a 7 or 11-year-old in books.
• All of their stories have been illustrated by children's illustrators, framed, and put into a 500 Words winners' book. The illustrators, co-ordinated by Anderson Press, are Momoko Abe, Dapo Adeola, Rob Biddulph, Yasmeen Ismail, Lydia Monks and Nigel Parkinson.
• BBC Teach run 500 Words in partnership with: Anderson Press, Beano, EFL in the Community, HeadteacherChat, Libraries Connected, National Book Tokens, National Literacy Trust, Oxford University Press, Pobble, Premier League Primary Stars, Publishers Association, The Reading Agency and World Book Day.
• All the excitement from entire event, including the live performances by celebrity readers of the winning stories, will be available to watch in an hour-long 500 Words programme on CBBC and iPlayer (4pm, Friday 7 March).
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