Pure Inspiration Competition

Two of Britain’s top authors, GP Taylor and David Almond, have joined forces with English Heritage to encourage budding writers of all ages to take inspiration from some of the finest historic sites in the North, and put pen to paper in two writing competitions.

This summer, authors around the country are invited to submit stories that draw their inspiration from the cliff-top ruins of Yorkshire’s Whitby Abbey and the magical Lucky Spot which is currently in residence at Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens in Northumberland. This competition will give several authors the chance to have see their works in print, hopefully uncovering some bright new talent for the future.

The Pure Inspiration competition runs until 7 July 2009 for Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, and 4 September 2009 for Whitby Abbey. Entries from writers of all ages and abilities are welcomed – although they must share a common theme, using either Whitby Abbey or Lucky Spot as an integral part of the story.

Whitby Abbey Pure Inspiration Competition

Whitby Abbey has been inspiring creative people for centuries. Writers young and old who enter the competition will be following in the steps of several well-known writers from the last 1300 years – England’s first recorded poet, Caedmon, was a monk at the Abbey shortly after its foundation in the seventh century, turning his hand to poetry after having an inspiration dream whilst asleep there. More recently, the Victorian writer of Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell, has written about the Abbey ruins, whilst Bram Stoker immortalised the ruins as the backdrop to Count Dracula’s arrival on British shores in the gothic classic that spawned a whole generation of vampire stories.

Who can enter?
What can stories be about?
How do I enter?
What is the prize?
Who are the judges?
Terms and Conditions

Who can enter?

The competition is open to anyone in the country – or indeed, the world – who has been inspired to write by Whitby Abbey. There are four categories that will be judged separately:
• Ages 11 and under (maximum story length: 500 words)
• Ages 12 to 16 (maximum story length: 1250 words)
• Ages 17 to 21 (maximum story length: 2500 words)
• Over 21s (maximum story length: 2500 words)

What can the stories be about?

Pretty much anything, as long as the Abbey features in the story, and the story is fictional. It can be set at any time: past, present or future, or indeed, be set in the real world or a parallel world, as long as the Abbey remains sat on its headland and is an integral part of the story. That does not mean that the whole story has to be set on the site of the Abbey – or indeed, in any of the buildings on the Abbey site – but the relationship of the Abbey to the story has to be clear. A passing mention of “They drove past Whitby’s gothic Abbey on their way up the coast”, for example, is not a sufficient engagement of the Abbey with the story.

The stories may be of any genre: Christian, historical, funny, philosophical, romance, etc. and may be aimed at any audience, young or old. However, stories with strong adult themes (sex, drugs, violence) may be disallowed if their content is deemed unsuitable to be associated with English Heritage.

How do I enter?

To allow for circulation of the stories around the shortlisting panel, we ask that all entries be submitted by email in electronic form. Acceptable formats include:
• Microsoft Word documents (*.doc or *.docx)
• Text or Rich Text Files (*.txt or *.rtf)
• Portable Document Format (*.pdf)
• HTML format (*.htm or *.html)

All entries should be emailed to whitbystorytelling@fim.org.uk, no later than 12 noon on Friday 4 September 2009 and any entries received after this time will not be considered.

The document should be included as an attachment to the email. The covering email should include:
• Your name, address, telephone number and date of birth. If you are writing under a nom-de-plume, your real name and your writing name should be included.
• The title and number of words of your story.

What is the prize?

The top stories in each category will be published by English Heritage in a book called “Whitby Abbey: Pure Inspiration”. Authors will receive two complementary copies of the book, with further copies available to purchase at a discounted price. The book will be on sale at selected English Heritage sites, including Whitby Abbey, and through selected other outlets. All royalties from the sale will go towards supporting English Heritage’s work at Whitby Abbey.

Stories will also be selected to be published on the English Heritage website (www.english-heritage.org.uk). They may also feature on other websites, in the press, on radio or on television.

We may publish some of the stories on the English Heritage website whilst the competition is open, to encourage other writers to submit entries. We will let you know if your entry is to feature, and the dates it will appear. Publication on the website during the course of the competition does not indicate that your entry has won the competition.

Entrants accept that, if they win, English Heritage will have the right, without additional payment or permission, to use their name/nom-de-plume, age, town of residence and likeness for the purposes of announcing the winner of the competition and for related promotional purposes, which may include media interviews and publicity photographs.

Who are the judges?

The final panel of judges for the competition is still to be confirmed. All entries will be considered by a volunteer panel and marked against strict criteria, with the best entries reviewed by the judging panel. The panel will include:
• Rev. Graham Taylor, author of best-seller, “Shadowmancer”
• Sarah Freeman, features editor of the Yorkshire Post
• Jamie Marshall, visitor operations manager for Whitby Abbey
• Nicola Bexon, marketing manager for English Heritage’s Northern territory

Terms and conditions (“the Terms and Conditions”)

By submitting your story to the Whitby Abbey: Pure Inspiration (“the Competition”), you agree to the following terms and conditions:

All information detailing how to enter the Competition forms part of these Terms and Conditions. It is a condition of entry that all rules are accepted as final and that the competitor agrees to abide by these rules. Submission of an entry will be taken to mean acceptance of these Terms and Conditions.

Stories must be the work of the individual submitting them and must not have been published, self-published, published on any website or online forum, broadcast, or have won a prize in any other competition. It is the responsibility of each entrant to ensure that no element of their story infringes the copyright of any third party or any laws.

Joint entries will be permitted. In this case, the prize will have to be split amongst the joint participants in a way they consider appropriate. In any event, both participants must meet the requirements set out in these Terms and Conditions.

You confirm that you hold the exclusive right to publish the story at the time of submission, and you agree that you will not submit the story to any other publishers or competitions until the Competition results have been announced, which will be no later than 31 October 2009.

All entries must be in English, and once submitted, entries cannot be withdrawn.

The competitor confirms that the story is entirely fictional, and any reference to characters living or dead is purely coincidental. Where the story is based upon true events the competitor confirms that the names and descriptions of any characters has been changed sufficiently to disguise the real identity of the people involved and that the story does not contain any libellous material.

The copyright for the story remains with you, the author. However, in consideration of English Heritage providing the Competition:

• You agree to grant a worldwide, irrevocable, exclusive licence to English Heritage, its agents and subsidiaries (“the English Heritage Group”), to publish the story, in part or in its entirety, and also agree to grant the same the right to edit or change the story in any way deemed necessary for publication until 31 December 2010 and after this date, the English Heritage Group shall retain the worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive right to publish the work in any format; and you agree to grant the English Heritage Group permission to provide copies of the story in part or in its entirety to other marketing partners for publication in any format, until 31 December 2010.

No royalties or payments will be made in respect of the submission, regardless as to whether the story is published or not. All royalties for the publication of any entries will be collected by English Heritage and treated as charitable donations towards the maintenance of Whitby Abbey.

The judges’ decision is final. No correspondence will be entered with unsuccessful entrants.

Lucky Spot Pure Inspiration Competition

The magical setting of Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens is the resting place of Stella McCartney’s crystal Horse Lucky Spot. The magnificent crystal steed is sure to set imaginations running wild and your stories are set to bring the shimmering crystal horse sculpture literally to life.

Local author David Almond, whose Carnegie medal and a Whitbread Award winning novel Skellig has just enjoyed a small screen adaptation on Sky 1, finds a lot of material for his work in the Northumberland region and finds Belsay’s beautiful gardens a stunning and inspirational setting.

Who can enter?
What can stories be about?
How do I enter?
What is the prize?
Who are the judges?
Terms and Conditions

Who can enter?

The competition is open to anyone in the country – or indeed, the world – of all ages who has been inspired to write by Lucky Spot at Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens.

What can the stories be about?

Pretty much anything, as long as Lucky Spot features in the story, and the story is fictional. It can be set at any time: past, present or future, or indeed, be set in the real world or a parallel world, as long as Lucky Spot remains an integral part of the story. That does not mean that the whole story has to be set on the site of Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens but the relationship of Lucky Spot to the story has to be clear. A passing mention of “They read about Lucky Spot in the newspaper that morning”, for example, is not a sufficient engagement of Lucky Spot with the story. The possibilities are as far reaching as the imagination of writers of all ages and backgrounds.

The stories may be of any genre:historical, funny, philosophical, romance, etc. and may be aimed at any audience, young or old. However, stories with strong adult themes (sex, drugs) may be disallowed if their content is deemed unsuitable to be associated with English Heritage.

How do I enter?

To allow for circulation of the stories around the judges, we ask that all entries be submitted by email in electronic form. Acceptable formats include:
• Microsoft Word documents (*.doc or *.docx)
• Text or Rich Text Files (*.txt or *.rtf)
• Portable Document Format (*.pdf)
• HTML format (*.htm or *.html)

All entries should be emailed to belsayhorse@mhwpr.co.uk, no later than 12 noon on Tuesday 7 July 2009 and any entries received after this time will not be considered.