THE arts editor of a national daily newspaper was dazzled by the performance of a Forest student who led her team to debate victory at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

Dene Magna Year Eight pupil Annabel Motson took centre stage to deliver her dialogue about an award-winning children’s book, telling the assembled crowd about its unusual plot, its unique writing style and its wide emotional impact.

And she finished her speech with a reading from One – the tale of two conjoined twins by Sarah Crossan – causing Times critic Alex O’Connell to say: “That made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.”

The Mitcheldean school was one of six selected to take part in the festival debate on Wednesday, October 11, to help select the Carnegie Award’s 80th Anniversary Winner of Winners.

Pupils had to read as many of the winners as they could from the children and young peoples’ book award, with six then being shortlisted and each of the six invited schools being asked to champion one of the novels.

A school spokeswoman said: “Annabel took the lead for us and represented the school with grace, courage and determination. She did us proud, and when the non-participating schools in the audience cast their votes, Dene Magna won convincingly.”