Winners Of National Divine Poetry Competition 2014 Announced


Divine Chocolate and Christian Aid are delighted to announce the winners of this year’s National Divine Poetry Competition. Award-winning children’s author Philip Ardagh joined us to select the poems from over 1000 entries which best captured the theme “If I Met a Cocoa Farmer”.  Entries in Welsh have been judged separately by 2013-2015 Welsh Children’s Poet Laureate Aneirin Karadog.

As always the topic of chocolate stimulated thousands of budding poets to wax lyrical about chocolate, something they clearly love, and the Fairtrade focus produced more reflective thoughts and ideas. The winners were chosen from over 1000 entries, mostly from schools all over UK. In the 7-11 age group the winner was Sophie Turner (9) from Sandling County Primary School. The 12-16 age group the winner was Daniella Cugini (16) King’s High School in Warwick, and the winner of the 17-adult age group was Katrina Quinn from Penzance in Cornwall.

First prize for the Welsh language poems went to Dyfan Alun Humphreys,Ysgol Edern in the 7-11 age group and Caspar Rolant, Ysgol Bro Myrddin in the 12-16 age group

Philip Ardagh said: “I was delighted to be asked to judge this year’s National Divine Poetry Competition, combining two of my favourite things: poetry and chocolate…and with Divine combining chocolate with Fairtrade we were onto a winner from the start! There were funny poems, sad poems and thought-provoking poems. Some were all three but we were left with a lasting impression of competition entrants who’d thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the project.”

Aneirin Karadog said: “The number of entries was very high, which is encouraging as it shows there is a desire amongst our youth not only to write poems but also to spread the message about the worthy causes that Divine, Fairtrade and Christian Aid campaign on. The winners of the competition managed to think about more than just their stomachs by putting themselves in the shoes of the cocoa farmers and displayed skills in original thinking and working with words. Congratulations to the winners and to all who competed for the pleasure and entertainment that came from reading your work.”

Charlotte Borger, Communications Director at Divine Chocolate adds: “Our theme this year had the desired effect of making people think about where our favourite treat comes from and the hard work that goes into each chocolate bar we enjoy. Unless cocoa farmers are paid a sustainable price in the future there won’t be any more cocoa and chocolate could run out!  This focused minds and produced some lovely odes to cocoa farmers. Thank you to Philip, who we were delighted to have join us as our special guest judge.”

All the winning and runners up poems can be found on the Divine website where you can also see Philip Ardagh reading the winning English language poems aloud.

Winners have received special Divine hampers, Divine t-shirts, book tokens and Christian Aid mugs, pads and pens, as well as their individual certificates.



Philip Ardagh is best known for his Eddie Dickens and Grubtown Tales series of books, Philip has written over100 books and awards include the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. His latest series, The Grunts, is illustrated by Axel Scheffler.
More information about Philip can be found on his website http://www.philipardagh.co.uk/or follow him on twitter https://twitter.com/PhilipArdagh


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