Secondary school pupils with a love of the written word have had their short stories published.

Stories by young wordsmiths in year nine at Kingsbury High School were included in a national anthology called A Twist in the Tale – Southern Stories.

The book has been compiled by company Young Writers, which held a competition among schools across the country aimed at encouraging creative writing in schools.

The collection of stories is available to buy online and a copy will now be held in the British Library.

Tayari Gachegua, 14, said: “We had to try and write a story within a hundred words and the story had to have a twist at the end.

“My story is called The Prisoner. It’s about a grandfather who is telling his grandchildren about his time in prison. When I saw the book for the first time, my heart started pumping; I was just a bit nervous.

“The fact that the book will be in our school library is even more nerve-wracking than it being in The British Library because it will be members of the public and people that we don’t know, whereas in the school library it’s your peers that are going to be reading it, so they are going to be direct.”

Fellow pupil Adam Badawy, 13, said: “I’ve been to the British Library a few times and I’ve seen how big it is, so I was really surprised when I heard the book was going to be held there.

“It’s quite a big honour to see something that I have written in there.”