A RADLETT schoolboy has won first prize in a national poetry competition.

The Pumpkin by seven-year-old Edward Dutton, from Manor Lodge School, beat 20,000 other poems to last week win its creator a family holiday to Barbados.

The prize for the Pound-a-Poem competition, created in autumn in aid of Cancer Research, was given by Jacqueline Wilson, Children's Laureate and author.

Edward was joined at the ceremony at Waterstone's in Piccadilly, London by parents, Caroline and Jeremy, sister, Maria and brother, Matthew.

The finalists from the competition will have their poems published in a special book in September, alongside poems by well-known personalities. For more information visit www.poundapoem.co.uk.