Sue Pickford Cheung

I’m a big fan of the 500 Words competition as the emphasis is on storytelling, imagination and creativity – not spelling, grammar and all that bumf. The awards were given at Buckingham Palace this year and I was invited because I illustrated one of winning stories. I can’t tell you how excited I was to get Spencer’s thrilling and hilarious heist, ‘The Scottish Gangsta’ (8-11yrs category).

I told the queen how I grew up with no books in the house. Hopefully this will inspire kids to know they have a chance of doing all right, if they can join a public library like I did, and access reading that way. Well done to the finalists and the 44,000 kids who entered!

You can read all the winning stories in full on the BBC Teach website, and a special The One Show marking this event will be aired Thursday 7th March for World Book Day.