Competitions

  • Young Quills 2024 – the longlist

    6th March 2024

    Each year, the Historical Association runs ‘Young Quills’, a competition for published historical fiction for children and young adults (14+). The Young Quills books for each year must be published for the first time in English in the year preceding the competition – so 2023 for this year’s selection.  Our...

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  • Talking History

    5th January 2024

    Following the success of our Great Debate competition for secondary students, we are delighted to announce that we are piloting a new history public speaking competition for primary pupils.  Who is my local history hero?  The question of the Talking History competition this year is who is my local history...

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  • Write Your Own Historical Fiction Competition 2024

    11th December 2023

    Each year we are so impressed by the ever increasing number and standard of entries we receive around such a wide range of historical periods and settings. You can take a look at some of last year’s winning entries here. Unleash the creativity of your pupils through the Write Your Own...

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  • Write Your Own Historical Fiction competition 2023 – the winners

    20th September 2023

    Being inspired by stories of the past to tell stories for today has kept people entertained for hundreds of years. Take a look at the shelves in any bookshop and there will be plenty of historical fiction. That is why we believe in starting them young at the HA, and...

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  • Young Historian Awards 2023 – the winners

    8th September 2023

    Each year the Historical Association partners with The Spirit of Normandy Trust to recognise young historians who have shown excellent knowledge and demonstrated historical argument around a subject associated with a series of themes. The competition is divided into age brackets and the entry at secondary level is by essay,...

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  • Young Quills winners 2023

    14th July 2023

    It is with great pleasure that the HA is able to announce the winners of the Young Quills for Historical Fiction for 2023: Young readers category Winner: Tony Bradman for Bruno and Frida (Barrington Stoke)Highly Commended: Judith Eagle for Accidental Stowaway (Faber) Intermediate category Winner: Tom Palmer for Resist (Barrington...

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  • Young Quills reviews 2023

    Multipage Article

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  • Announcing the winners of the Write Your Own Historical Fiction competition 2022

    12th October 2022

    The HA's writing competition for children aged 10-19 years After another year of high-quality fiction writing from our young people, we are pleased to announce that the winners in all of the categories are: School Years 5-6: Eloise Burt – The HMS Titanic. Old Priory Junior Academy, Plymouth Hannah Tan...

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  • Young Quills winners 2022

    5th July 2022

    We are delighted to announce the 2022 competition winners for the Historical Association’s Young Quills Awards for Historical Fiction for children and young adults:  Ages 5–9 years category: Winner: The Chessmen Thief by Barbara Henderson, Pokey Hat, Cranachan PublishingHighly commended: The Valley of Lost Secrets by Lesley Parr, Bloomsbury Publishing  Ages 10–13...

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  • Young Quills reviews 2022

    Multipage Article

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