AN East Lancashire journalist has won an accolade in a UK competition to find the nation's best budding novelists.

Theresa Robson, 41, of Padiham Road, Sabden, the former Ribble Valley reporter for the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, was runner-up in A Novel Approach 2003.

The competition, which attracted hundreds of entries from throughout the UK, is aimed at unpublished authors looking to break into print.

They were invited to submit a section of a novel in progress plus a synopsis to a panel of judges that included best-selling novelists Wendy Robertson, who penned Honesty's Daughter, and Elizabeth Gill, author of The Homecoming.

Judges placed high value on entries that demonstrated imagination, originality and flair.

The competition, patronised by top authors David Almond, Anne Fine and former Booker prize-winner Pat Barker, offers cash prizes and the top three entries are read by leading publishers and literary agents.

Theresa, who recently quit work as a full-time journalist to take up a post as part-time communications officer at Ribble Valley Council and concentrate on writing her novel, said she was thrilled to bits with the competition win.

Her historical novel is centred on the loom-breaking riots in East Lancashire in the early 19th Century.

Theresa, a former pupil of Ribblesdale High School, Clitheroe, is studying creative writing at Lancaster University and the Bolton Institute.

She will receive her prize at a special ceremony in Durham on Sunday, November 9.