Simon’s a winner

A LEVEL student Simon James has excelled in a writing competition run by The Daily Telegraph and Penguin Books.

Simon, 17, who is studying English at Sir John Deane’s College, beat around 100 writers to reach the finals of the prestigious John le Carré ‘A Story For Our Time’ competition.

His 2,000-word story, entitled Nobody Important, was praised by the judging panel who described the entry as: “A modern day parable about the dangers of internet chat rooms and online relationships, with a fresh and clever twist.”

Sue Harding, English tutor at Sir John Deane’s College, said: “Simon has done extremely well and we are all so pleased that he made the shortlist of finalists. The entries were judged by the fiction editors at Penguin, and the winner was picked by John le Carré.”