Laura Wood hit the headlines this week as she was announced winner of the Montegrappa Scholastic Prize for New Children's Writing for her debut children's novel Poppy Pym and the Pharaoh's Curse, which will be launched by Scholastic at The London Book Fair 2015.

Wood, a PhD student in Victorian literature at the University of Warwick, beat over 1000 other entrants to win representation at Luigi Bonomi Associates after head judge Cerrie Burnell said 'The story of Poppy Pym dances off the page with a quiet grace and heartwarming sense of wonder'. The book's set to follow in the footsteps of Harry Potter as it follows a schoolgirl enlisting her family, a group of circus performers, to help her track down a stolen priceless Egyptian artifact.