The Spectator Young Writers' £500 Prize, 1975
The Spectator's schools prize for 1975 was open to competition by sixth-form students (or equivalent) for original writing on one of ten given subjects. The prize of £500, by the rules of the competition, was to be either won outright or divided, at the discretion of the judges, among a number of winners to a maximum of five, and was to be given half as a cash award to the winner or winners, and half in books of the same cash value to the school (or schools) of the winner(s).
The number of entries received was as large as ever, but in the opinion of the judges they were not, in point of overall quality, of the same high standard as in previous years. Very few entries seemed in any way outstanding. although many were highly competent. There were few polemical essays of any quality — despite the number of subjects that invited them — and the majority of the competitors chose the short-story form.
After much deliberation and discussion over the eventual 'short list., the judges, looking for the prime qualities of imagination and originality as well as literary style, agreed that the prize should be divided on the basis of a first prize of £100, and three runners-up prizes of £50 each, with similar amounts in books to the winners' schools.
The prize-winners are as follows £100 first prize: Lalage Everest-Phillips of 82 Mill Way, , Mill Hill, London NW7 ("Conscience and the king"), a student at North London Collegiate School which receives the complementary prize of £100 worth of books.
£50 prizes and complementary prizes of £50 worth of books to each winner's school.
D. G. Edwards of 3 Ardross Avenue, Northwood, Middlesex ("The Taming of the Shrew.), a student at Merchant Taylors' School;
Blaise Fagan of 10 Crichton Park, Tamlaght, Enniskillen, Northern Ireland ('Who cares?'), a student at Enniskillen Technical College, Fermanagh; and Julia Kettle of 12 Wilmington Road, Quinton, Birmingham ("Who cares?"), a student at Edgbaston High School.
The entries of the following (in alphabetical order) were Highly Commended by the judges: lmogen Andrews of Halesworth, Suffolk (Bungay High School); Elizabeth Bain of Amersham, Bucks. (Dr Challoner's High School); Cheryl Carman of London N12 (Woodhouse School); Anthony R. Clark of Vienna, Austria (Downside School): P. R. Davies of Hill Head, Hampshire (Bryanston School); Alan J. C. Duncan (Merchant Taylors' School); Gerald Hales of Egham (Strodes School); Christopher A. Hawtree of High Wycombe (Royal Grammar School); Harold James of Cambridge (Perse School); John Moss of London W3 (Latymer Upper School); Matthew Tree of London SW1 (Westminster School); Michele Weavers of Northfield, Birmingham (Wroxall Abbey School); and Maxwell Velody of Sunderland (Fettes College).
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