Writers of all ages were showcased at a book festival which recorded its highest ever attendance this month.

A whopping 10,000 tickets to Wimbledon BookFest were sold and 4,000 children from Merton and Wandsworth schools attended events across the nine-day festival.

Among the youngsters to enjoy the event were young writing competition winners Amber Lock and Sasha Lacey, from Hollymount primary school in Wimbledon and Rebecca Slee from Dundonald Primary.

Wimbledon Times:

From left, Sasha Lacey, Rebecca Slee and Amber Lock with Merton mayor Councillor David Chung and writer Elizabeth Laird. 
 

The trio picked up their prizes on Friday from writer Elizabeth Laird and the Merton's mayor Councillor David Chung.

They were chosen out of hundreds of entries to the BookFest's primary school category of the writing competition by judges which focussed on the theme of through the looking glass to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Rod Ayres was crowned the winner of the adult short-story writing competition, where entrants had to pen 250 words on the theme of putting on a brave face.

Wimbledon Times:

Adult short story competition winner Rod Ayres with his published work

Organisers of the festival held on Wimbledon Common noted a 25 per cent increase in visitors on last year, with 1,000 new attendees taking the total up to 10,000 book-loving festival-goers.

Festival director Fiona Razvi said: "We were delighted with the response to Wimbledon BookFest this year.

"The community has fully embraced the festival and a quarter of our attendees were new.

The energy was remarkably high at the festival site this year and it was wonderful to see the involvement of young people this year, including the performers at our new gig night hosted by Radio X DJ John Kennedy.

"We’ve got a lot to match in our 10th year next year in 2016 but the team are up for it!"