A FOUR-year-old girl has been named a one of the country’s top ten young writers.

Emilia Coe, from Chyngton Primary School in Seaford, is a runner up in the National Young Writers’ Awards 2018. More than 39,000 children across the UK took part.

Children were tasked with writing a 500-word story on this year’s theme, Heroes, and Emilia wrote a story called Charlotte Is A Vet.

The competition was organised by tuition provider Explore Learning and is now in its tenth year and inspired thousands of children to write.

Every child who entered the National Young Writers’ Awards will receive a certificate to celebrate their story, along with personalised feedback from Explore Learning.

The top ten entries received £250 worth of books for their schools from Letts Revision, and a large print of the opening line of their story by QuirkyLime.

Only ten children’s stories were selected to be the national runners up after they were crowned regional winners last month.

The overall winner will be selected from these ten children by David Walliams, who is this year’s judge author and entertainer, and the team at Explore Learning.

David will surprise the winner with a school assembly on June 18 and present them with a trophy, a trip to Disneyland Paris for them and their family as well as £500 worth of books for their school.

Charlotte Gater, head of curriculum at Explore Learning, said: “This year’s award attracted a record number of entries to so make it to the top ten in the country is really something to be proud of.

“We have been absolutely blown away by how many children sent us heroic tales and loved reading them all. Hopefully being named a runner up will inspire Emilia Coe to continue writing.”

David Walliams published his first children’s novel, The Boy In The Dress in 2008 and in total he has published ten novels, three short stories and six picture books.

He said: “I was overwhelmed by the quality and creativity of the stories I was reading and was so impressed that this broad range of exciting ideas have come from such young writers.

“Each piece of writing drew me in and kept me captivated by clever and observant story lines and engaging characters. We definitely have some future star authors here.”