A STUDENT teacher and a former PE teacher have clinched the top prizes at an awards ceremony celebrating East and Midlothian’s writing talents.

Andrew Broadfoot, from Dunbar, was named the winner of this year’s Tyne and Esk Writer of the Year Award for his crime story That Dog and Our Family.

The 53-year-old has a voluntary sector background but is making a career change and has embarked on a post-graduate diploma in education.

Andrew, who has been writing for the last 10 years, already has an MA in creative writing from Edinburgh Napier University.

He said: “I have a lot to thank the Tyne and Esk Writers Group in Dunbar for.

“The members provide valuable feedback on each other’s work.”

The Tyne and Esk Writers Group is an umbrella group covering more than half a dozen writing groups across both East and Midlothian.

The top poetry prize also went to one of the county’s budding writers, with Anne Shivas, who began writing poetry seriously in her 30s, lifting the trophy for Time Travel.

Anne, a former PE teacher – now a teacher of the Alexander Technique, a system designed to promote wellbeing by retraining one’s awareness and habits of posture to ensure minimum effort and strain – who also holds a Masters degree in poetry, is a member of the Tyne and Esk Poetry Group, which meets in Haddington.

Her first book of poetry is set to be published next year and Anne, of North Berwick, said: “A writing group is the best way to quickly improve your writing and I love the fact Tyne and Esk is able to offer the support of a professional creative writing fellow and occasional workshops.”

That was not the end of the East Lothian success, though.

Winning a second place in the poetry category for his Swift Sonnet and a commended for On a Retreat at Beech Hill was Jock Stein, from Haddington, who is also a member of the poetry group.

Fellow poet Michael Davenport, from East Linton, took third place, while Julia Carman, of Musselburgh, also won a highly commended in the prose category.

More than 75 entries, split into 42 poetry and 36 prose, were judged by Janet Paisley, the highly-regarded writer, poet and playwright who writes in Scots and English and whose work has been translated into German, Russian, Lithuanian, Slovak, Spanish, Hungarian, Ukrainian and Italian.

George Cunningham, Tyne and Esk Writers’ convener, added: “Tyne and Esk comprises eight writing groups across East and Midlothian and these awards are the highlight of our year.

“We welcome writers at all stages of their development – the only criteria is a love of working with words.

“The Writer of the Year ceremony reminded me yet again of the enormous wealth of talent we have in Tyne and Esk and how we all help each to the develop our skills.”