A short story written “from the point of view of a pair of pants” has triumphed in a BBC competition in which all the winners were girls.
Mya Dainty’s prize for her tale, Pants!, is the Duchess of Cornwall’s height in books.
BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show’s 500 Words competition received almost 113,000 entries this year and the six winners were announced in a ceremony at Windsor Castle.
📸 Say cheese! Here's Mya with her story reader @hughbon! pic.twitter.com/US0Ye1JXSE
— BBC Radio 2 (@BBCRadio2) June 14, 2019
Prizes include award founder Chris Evans’ height in books for gold winners, Camilla’s height in books for silver recipients, while bronze winners receive their own height in books.
Winning stories were read by Hugh Bonneville, Konnie Huq, Helen McCrory, Michael Sheen, Sandi Toksvig and David Walliams.
📸 Here's marvellous Millie with @michaelsheen and her story illustrator David Roberts! #500Words pic.twitter.com/eGGFAGdkIN
— BBC Radio 2 (@BBCRadio2) June 14, 2019
Pants! won the silver award in the five to nine-year-olds category for being “laugh-out-loud funny”.
Novelist Frank Cottrell-Boyce said: “The idea of a family running away from their own knickers will stay with me for a long time.”
And author Charlie Higson said: “I don’t think I’ve ever read a story before that was written from the point of view of a pair of pants.”
A huge well done to Mya Dainty! 👏 She's just won the 5-9 silver award for her brilliant story ‘PANTS!’ 👖👖👖
✏️ Illustration by @heyimjarvis.
Read Mya's full story here 👉 https://t.co/9nQA2Mr11z#500Words pic.twitter.com/eY1ezWhcEC
— BBC Radio 2 (@BBCRadio2) June 14, 2019
The five other winners were also female.
Snow Blood Window Frame by Eve Molloy, a “humorous retelling of a classic fairytale”, won the gold category in the same age group.
Fragile Freya by Rosa Moody, “about the fragility in all of us”, scooped the bronze, in a year when there were “a lot of very moving stories about anxiety and depression”.
Re-live all of the action from this morning and listen to this year's winning stories on our website now! https://t.co/GGnB68eUDl pic.twitter.com/ARzfErnKQC
— BBC Radio 2 (@BBCRadio2) June 14, 2019
Why Did The Chicken by Esme Harrison-Jones, the “hilarious struggles of daft chickens”, won gold in the 10 to 13-year-old category.
Tyrannos-oral Hygiene by Millie Robinson, about a T-Rex with toothache who needs a trip to the dentist, won silver, and A Walk In The Park by Beth Helliwell took bronze.
Since its launch in 2011, more than 900,000 children have submitted stories for the competition.
My outfit for the #500words live final @BBCRadio2 from Windsor Castle this morning. Too much? pic.twitter.com/cq0Gur9g4i
— Tina Daheley (@TinaDaheley) June 14, 2019
Radio 2 Breakfast Show host Zoe Ball, who was at the event alongside her Breakfast Show predecessor Evans, said it was an “honour to meet the fabulously talented writers of the 500 Words-winning stories”.
Authors on the judging panel included Malorie Blackman and Francesca Simon, as well as Cottrell-Boyce and Higson, while the duchess was honorary judge.
Analysis of thousands of submissions to the competition previously revealed that Prime Minister Theresa May and Brexit are having a surprising influence on children’s creativity.