This was the challenge of our latest competition for young writers.

THE COMPETITION IS CLOSED FOR 2011 - BUT THERE WILL BE ANOTHER ONE IN 2012

This year our competition marked the 200th anniversary of the publication of Sense and Sensibility and our theme was "Brothers and Sisters".

We were looking for stories or complete scenes of 300 - 500 words. The competition was open to young people who will be in school years 7 - 10 in autumn 2011 and who live or are educated in Hampshire and its bordering counties.

We were looking for writing that was lively and interesting but well controlled and properly edited. Entries were to be about brothers, sisters or both. Jane Austen had six brothers and a sister and family relationships are key to her fiction. We hoped that entrants wojuld enjoy reading her novels, particularly Sense and Sensibility this year and would be inspired by it, The entracts could set their story or scene wherever and whenever they liked and were not asked to imitate Jane Austen's voice.

1st prize winners will received £50 and a class set of Sense & Sensibility for their school. The competition closed on 10th June 2011 and winners were invited to a prize giving on the 6th July held at the house museum.

You can see some extracts from the competition here.

The competition has now closed - you can see a list of winners here.