Write Your Own Historical Fiction competition winners 2026

Telling a story about the events, peoples and places of the past is one of the oldest forms of creating an historical legacy. Those stories help to reveal as well as enrich the past, creating a place for investigation as well as fascination. That is why we want to harness young people’s storytelling about history as soon as we can, through reading some of the best stories and being encouraged to write their own. As 2026 is the National Year of Reading, creating new stories for new generations to continue this tradition of learning about the past is all the more poignant.

However, we always value storytelling and reading as ways of exciting young minds about the past. That is why every year we hold the Write Your Own Historical Fiction competition. The competition allows children from primary age to mid-teens to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of history in a creative way. There is even an award for best character as well as the overall winners – that is how much we believe in a creative love of storytelling in the historical fiction tradition.

This year the stories we received continued to meet our now expected high standard. The stories ranged across the ages and the globe. There are tales set in conflict and in peacetime, in popular parts of history and in lesser-known places and periods. The final winning stories are set in East Asia and Central Europe as well as the UK.

To ensure that an expertise in writing fiction as well as acknowledge of history is demonstrated in the submissions, the head judge for the competition is a professional published author. This year that author is renowned award-winner Tony Bradman who brought his decades long experience to the judging process.

There are six story winners – three in primary and three in secondary, with three additional winners for best character in a story.

The 2026 winners are:

Primary category

• Ishan Tannamala – Riverley Primary School, London
• Rose Mullane – British School, Tokyo
• Sophia Clarke – Bute House Preparatory School, London

Secondary category

• Edward Kane – Stanborough School, Herts
• Iris Whiddon – The Cornerstone Academy, Dorset
• Eliphel Ablorh – Brentwood School, Essex

Best character in a story

• Callum Gardner – Meridian High School, Surrey
• Ella Bradley – North Halifax Grammar School, West Yorkshire
• Isla Ingham-Cooke – Wellington Prep School

Judge's comments 

All the entries created a vivid insight to the past with the winners selected with quite some difficulty. Tony Bradman summed up why the winners stood out:

Primary category

 
Ishan Tannamala – Egyptian Adventure
“A gripping story that does just what historical fiction should, bringing to life Ancient Egypt and its people. It even includes some thinking about the morality of revenge.”

Rose Mullane – Berlin
“In this lovely, poignant tale we see the impact of the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall on one young girl and her grandmother.”

Sophia Clarke – The Wilting Lillies
“A beautifully written, haunting evocation of Japan under US bombing in the Second World War, told in letters between two young sisters over several years.”

Secondary category

 
Edward Kane – The trench diary of James Huxton
“This striking piece of work includes moving diary entries, some excellent original poetry and illustrations, and demonstrates a deep engagement with the experiences of First World War soldiers on the Western Front.”

Iris Whiddon – Condemned by Love
“Gripping is the only way to describe this well-crafted exploration of a witch trial in the seventeenth century in an exploration of religious fanaticism and paranoia.”

Eliphel Ablorh – The Vermilion Sisters
“Brilliantly written and plotted, this tale of two sisters in peril at the Imperial Court of the Tang dynasty China is exceptional in terms of research into the historical background.”

Best character in a story

 
Callum Gardner – The Impossible Turned Possible
“An object lesson in how to make a lively story out of some unpromising material, namely the creation of the universe! The answer in this case is to give our very own Sun a witty, funny personality and just let it talk.”

Ella Bradley – Two Girls, Two Sides, Two Lives, One War
“Creating believable characters against a background of a historical event as massive as the English Civil War is hard, but these two girls – one from a Cavalier family, the other from the Roundheads – instantly leap off the page.”

Isla Ingham-Cooke - Wellington Prep School
"From his first cheery ‘Hello’ to his final return home, William Harvey is an engaging guide to one of the most written about events of British history. Through his eyes we see both the horrors - and the triumph snatched from defeat."