A MALVERN teenager has proved the pen is truly mightier than the sword - after scooping a prestigious award for her writing skills.

Fifteen-year-old St James' School pupil Kate Ennis won the Malvern Young Writer of the Year Competition with her short story entitled Trouble With The Natives.

Her tale is about aliens colonising the Sahara Desert and was described by the judge, novelist Graham Gardner, as 'clever, thoughtful, imaginative and well-written with an excellent command of vocabulary and a wonderfully ironic ending'.

Kate, who lives in Ledbury, is no stranger to success, having won Worcester News sister paper the Malvern Gazette's Young Reporter competition last year. She was also commended this year for her piece of poetry, Christmas Dinner. "I was really happy and quite shocked as I didn't think I would win," she said.

Another first prize winner in the poetry section was Emma Hobday, aged 14, with Boiling Angry Beef.

Three more St James's students also won prizes in the competition, run by Malvern Writers' Circle and open to all schools and individuals in the area.

Sophie Meredith, aged 14, came second in the poetry section with her piece Lokomandis, while 13-year-old Hannah Johnson was highly commended in the same section for her poem titled Perfect World.

And pupil 14-year-old Gabriella Grandi was commended for her entry Too Meddlesome in the short story section.

"We're thrilled with the success of our students," said head of English Angie Fearnside.

"Creative writing is something that's often squeezed out of a busy English curriculum, but it's something I cherish," she added.