Norwich student becomes published poet at nine

A young Norwich High School for Girls student has become a published poet at the age of just nine.

Anna Wasse, who lives near Reepham, was one of 24 pupils, whose work was chosen out of 3,500 entries to a World Book Day competition.

He poem, which was inspired by her late grandmother, is to be published in a book of best stories to mark the annual event.

'When I was younger I used to sit on the end of my grandmother's bed and talk to her and I thought about that and said why don't I write my poem about something she could have said to me, like a dream', said Anna.

'The poem was about a grandmother talking to her little girl about what happened to her when she was younger.'

All of the students in her form were given the task of writing a poem for the competition for their homework and then a teacher from the school sent the best ones off.

When Anna is older she said she wanted to be an author or an astronomer. She started writing stories when she was four.

'I just thought about the poem and then wrote it down and then changed it a few times', she said.

'I just really like making things up and then writing them down into stories. English is my second favourite subject, science is my first.

'I was very happy and I was actually quite surprised because so many people entered and I didn't really think it would be me.

'I am very happy about it and I suppose I am quite proud.'

At an assembly at school she was given a certificate and a copy of the book with her poem in signed by the competition judge.

The school has also been given a number of copies for the library and other classes to read.

The competition was judged by children's author Pauline Francis, whose latest book is called Traitor's Kiss, she said: 'A writer must be a reader too, and reading these short stories has enriched my mind in a way I couldn't have imagined. It's been wonderful.'