Story of Feral Child Will Hit Bookshops Thanks to Top Prize

The fictitious story of a feral child's life in the North West has won the Impress Prize for New Writers 2007. The winning novel Consider The Lilies was written by Carol Fenlon, 60, a PHD student at Edge Hill University. The prize of an advance on a publishing contract with Impress Books was awarded at a lavish ceremony earlier this week.

Ms Fenlon, formerly a psychiatric nurse, has focused her research at Edge Hill on images of feral children in fiction. Describing how she felt about taking the top prize she said: 'Winning the Impress Prize has been a wonderful boost to my self confidence as a writer and I hope it will give me the opportunity to develop my writing further.'

She began writing in earnest in 1993 after a motorbike accident ended her nursing career. Since then she has continued working in the NHS and her writing has been published in mainstream magazines and received critical acclaim in national writing competitions including the Exeter Poetry prize and being shortlisted for the prestigious Asham Award.

The competition, run in conjunction with Exeter University, was open to previously unpublished students in the UK who registered on a university creative writing course. Entrants had to supply a six thousand word chapter of fiction that resulted in a shortlist of ten.

Dr Robert Sheppard supervised Carol Fenlon during her PHD. He said: 'When Carol started her postgraduate studies with us we knew we had a winner. Consider the Lilies is moving and multi-voiced; it deals with the difficult subject of feral children and she has found a voice for her child, as well as one for those around her. I'm really happy for her.'

Impress Books director Dr Richard Willis described the winning entry as 'haunting and beautifully crafted. Ms Fenlon has a unique voice and her writing deserves national attention.?

The winning entry was chosen by a panel from a shortlist of ten, a sample chapter of which appears in a specially produced publication. The panel included Professor of French and author Martin Sorrell (lecturer to JK Rowling), literary agent Jane Smith, author James Long, Waterstone?s fiction buyer Janine Cook and former Whitbread judge Colin Morgan.

Chairperson Professor Sorrell said: 'The judges were most impressed by the sustained high quality of what they read. It was no easy matter to decide on a winner, but the judges agreed on Carol Fenlon, happy in the knowledge that other entrants will have the opportunity to discuss their work with Impress and with representatives of the book trade.'

Consider the Lilies (ISBN: 9780955623912 £7.99) is scheduled for publication in May 2008 and will be available in all good bookshops. It can be pre-ordered From Amazon now.