Write Your Own Historical Story Competition 2011. As part of this competition the winners were invited to have their stories published on the Historical Association website. In the best stories pupils deliberately drew upon the historical fiction writer's devices to write well. They had clearly been explicitly taught how to do this. Most important was that they were telling a story where there was a problem for the protagonists to resolve.

This lifted their stories from being simply recount texts. And then they went on to root their interesting characters, settings and plot convincingly in the past. They drew upon their historical knowledge and understanding to establish a strong sense of period, but without the history becoming obtrusive. They knew their period well. Then they wrote stories that were enjoyable to read. Our first three stories are 'Windrush' by Lauren Gee, 'Orange and Green' by Michael Gough & A night that will never be forgotten by Isobel Emmett...