BBC 500 Words Finalists Celebrated at Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace played host to the Grand Final of BBC 500 Words, the UK’s most celebrated children’s writing competition.

50 young literary talents were invited to an exclusive reception hosted by The Queen, in recognition of their remarkable stories and for making it to the final stage.

Her Majesty has a longstanding commitment to championing literacy and creative writing, supporting the 500 Words competition every year since 2015.

The six outstanding winners of the competition were crowned, with their identities to be revealed in a special episode of The One Show - 500 Words with The One Show - airing on World Book Day®, Thursday 7 March on BBC One. Audiences will be transported to the majestic setting of Buckingham Palace where this momentous occasion was captured on film.

Her Majesty invited Romesh Ranganathan and a host of celebrity readers including Hugh Bonneville, Oti Mabuse, Luke Evans, Olivia Dean and - revealed today exclusively by Sara Cox on BBC Radio 2 – Marvel sensation Tom Hiddleston and star of Matilda Alisha Weir, to Buckingham Palace for this special episode of The One Show with Alex Jones and Roman Kemp.

This year’s judges, Sir Lenny Henry, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Francesca Simon, Charlie Higson, and Malorie Blackman, chaired by BBC Breakfast’s Jon Kay, also attended the special event.

Each of the finalist’s stories are available to read now on the BBC Teach website, alongside audio versions which have been voiced specially by BBC Radio Drama Actors.