Peace was the theme but there was a buzz in the air at the final of the Farnham Literary Festival’s Poetry Competition at St Mark’s Church, Hale, last week.

Judges Coral Rumble and Linda Daruvala were there to announce the winners of the adult and under-18 categories of the competition which had called for poems about peace. Both said that the standard was so high that they had had a hard time choosing which poems deserved awards.

The evening began with Coral Rumble, an award-winning poet and novelist who specialises in writing for young people, reading a selection of her own poems before presenting the prizes to the under-18s. These were divided into three categories: up to and including age seven, eight to 11 years and 12-17 years and there was a prize for a winner and two runners-up in each age group.

The runners-up for the sevens-and-under were Lotti Dos Santons for What does Peace mean to me, and Charlie Unsworth for Noisy and Quiet. The winner was Dolcie Della Jennings for Grass Beneath my Toes. Dolcie was also last year’s winner but neither Coral nor Linda had any idea who had written when they were judging as all the entries are anonymised.

In the eight-to-11-years category, the runners-up were Theo Palmer for On a wooden lounger and Max Heath for Peace to me; and the winner was Toby Hughes for his poem which was also called Peace to me. The runner up in the 12-17s group was Emelia Walkinshaw for Ode to Teenage Gatherings, and there were two joint winners: James Brindle for Peace is not gentleness and Fraeshu Joan for A dying moon.

After the interval, Linda Daruvala stepped up, both to read her own poetry including a moving one about the stars and the sudden death of her husband last year, and to announce the adult winners. Here the quality was so high that she had chosen several ‘highly commended’ poems as well as two runners-up and a winner. Highly commended were Kate Kennington Steer for Defined by a Negative, Divya Maree Jacob for Lunch, Sunday, Deborah Lloyd for A prayer for peace and Cathie Mason for Lakeside Pines. Cathie Mason was also a runner-up for her poem Deer. The other runner-up was Sheila Thadani for Woven Fabric, and the overall winner was Indranil Banerjee’s Before resting in peace, about a man who had walked away from peace in search of money and status and now regretted it as he came to the end of his life.

The competition was organised by Farnham Lions in conjunction with St Mark’s and the Farnham Literary Festival. A spokesperson for the church said: “Thank you to everyone who took part and wrote such beautiful and moving poetry. The creativity I see each year always astounds me. Thank you to Coral and Linda, to Farnham Town Council, and to Farnham Lions without whom the competition simply would not have taken place as the church did not have the capacity to run it this year. We look forward to next year and another brilliant competition.”

The winning entries will be on the church website shortly: www.badshotleaandhale.org