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From chilling, richly imagined dystopias to essays on meritocracy and colonial borders, we are delighted to announce the winners of The Orwell Youth Prize 2023, on the theme of ‘Who’s in Control?’.

All of this year’s winning entries – including runners up and highly commended, in senior and junior categories – are available to read now via the links below.

The Orwell Youth Prize 2023: Who’s in Control?

At a time when so many issues affecting young people, from education to the cost of living, feel out of control, and when it can be hard to know who or what to believe, we asked our entrants to think and write creatively about the theme ‘Who’s in Control?’.

Over 500 young writers responded in the form of essays, poetry, short fiction, journalism, and video game designs. The standard was once again incredibly high, so much so that our selectors chose forty-three outstanding pieces to go forward to the judges.

The judges of The Orwell Youth Prize 2023 were Orwell Prize-winning author, Delia Jarrett-Macauley; Financial Times Global Education Editor, Andrew Jack; the BBC’s Disinformation and Social Media Correspondent, Marianna Spring; and Forward Prize-winning poet, Will Harris. Chair of Judges, Delia Jarrett-Macauley, said:

We thoroughly enjoyed reading this year’s submissions for the OYP and were impressed by the range of unusual stories, poems, essays and scripts tackling the theme ‘Who’s in Control’. It was rewarding to discover so many well-executed pieces, and we were impressed by your creativity and original ideas. Keep writing! And congratulations to all.

Our volunteer readers also delivered over 400 pieces of feedback, ensuring that every entrant who requested it had a personal response to their work and the benefit of writing advice and inspiration from our network of professional writers, academics and publishing professionals.

The winners and runners up will also be invited to join The Orwell Youth Fellows, a collective of young writers starting conversations and developing new writing that is responsive to our changing world – and supporting other young people to engage with the prize.

The Orwell Youth Prize Celebration Day  2023

All the shortlisted writers were invited to the Celebration Day at University College London on Saturday 8th July 2023, where they took part in a creative writing workshop with the award-winning writer and poet Anthony Anaxagorou and shared their work before receiving their prizes, including a copy of George Orwell’s essays and The Orwell Youth Fellow’s Zine, Axial Tilt. Thank you to everyone who entered and congratulations to all our winners!

JUNIOR WINNERS

Beth Anker – Meritocracy: The Politician’s Pipe Dream

Priya Floura – Tick Tock

Heike Ghandi – The Catharsis of a Crane

Amelia Roles – Misconception

JUNIOR RUNNERS UP

Edward Blair-Heikkinen – Simulation 0413

Ruxue Jia – Why is it so dark?

Ellie Lee – An Uncontrollable Scribble

Marianne Lee – Obedience

SENIOR WINNERS

Zaeema Assad – The Radcliffe Line

Iris Mamier – Beware of the dog!’ says the man with the gun

Lucas Wong – Men’s Shoes

SENIOR RUNNERS UP

Heather Chapman – Tableau with Sea Breeze and Salt Crown

Ewan Guarnieri – A Grand Reveal

Rosetta Millar – The Collective

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Zirui Peng – To The Northerner (Junior)

Catie May McAleese – Thy Will Be Done (Senior)

The Orwell Youth Prize 2023 shortlisted writers, selected by our volunteer readers, were:

Amaia Blades-Darwen; Amelia Roles; Annabel Ovonlen; Anouk Wood; Beth Anker; Catherine McMullan; Catie May McAleese; Chelsea Xu; Doobee Adura; Edward Blair-Heikkinen; Ellie Lee; Ethan McMillan; Ewan Guarnieri; Francis McCabe; Haneen Eldegail; Hau Tak Ng; Heather Chapman; Heike Ghandi; Imogen Oliver; Imogen Watts; Iris Mamier; Isabella Tait; Jasmine Lai Man Chun; Lucas Wong; Lauren Slater; Marianne Lee; Narthana Jayaweerasingham, Nikita Kurgan; Nia Hopes; Oliver Lewis; Pip van Toorn; Priya Floura; Pun Wattanasiritham; Rebekah Wilson; Rosetta Millar; Ruby Campbell; Ruxue Jia; Sebastian Sexton; Selina Zheng; Semilore Kaji-Hausa; Treasure Stephen; Vanessa Deko; Zaeema Assad; Zirui Peng.

“A troubled, enquiring essay on fast fashion, environmental impact and self-identity. A powerful argument, which will speak to many young people.” – Professor Michael Jacobs

As a generation, we are forced to confront figures, incomprehensible to our daily lives and expected to feel something. We do. Momentarily. This fleeting moment of consciousness dips as soon as we swipe the article from the glossy screen of our phones and add another something. Nothing. Anything. Everything, to our basket. How can you feel something and nothing at the same time? How can we control the tide of consumption and still become who we are or who we want to be? As humans, we are selfish, it is beyond our nature to absorb the severity of situations surrounding us. It is hypocritical that I am critiquing humanity’s instinctive desire whilst I myself comply. While researching this essay, I witnessed the grotesque reality, whilst slowly sipping iced tea, swiping from page to endless page. The devastating reality is: we should all care more but we don’t. How do we reconcile creating who we are without jeopardising our world, the place where we become?

Retailer Shein is at the forefront of fast fashion. Founded in late 2008, it has evolved to become a dominating power in fast fashion. Shein is infamous for incorporating hazardous chemicals, carbon emissions and micro plastics within clothing. As a brand that mass produces cheap, poorly made items, they ‘perpetuate a throwaway fashion culture by simply existing’ (Wolfe 2021).

It’s perplexing that when buying, consumers are unable or unwilling to consider how items can be designed, produced and transported to them for such a small price. Even though society is becoming increasingly aware of the impact fast fashion has on our environment, awareness does not ensure action. The media greenwashing stems from companies wanting to convince consumers of their green credentials when in fact efforts to tackle climate change are limited. Companies such as H&M are eager to market things as ‘sustainable’ as ironically sustainability is ‘fashionable’ currently, due to the rise in veganism and second-hand shopping within younger consumers. The susceptibility of young consumers is what fast fashion feeds off; big business manipulates the way of thinking of these young consumers for their own benefit. But the question here lies, is it the business’ fault? Or is this highlighting the lack of responsibility within consumers? Therefore the problem with this trend of ‘sustainability’ is confounding, as the absence of sustainable practice here just feeds consumerist ideals of individuality and identity formation.

The fast fashion industry isn’t being sustained by those on a low income, for whom this is their only option for clothing. Shein is endorsed by the middle class, where we see mass overconsumption of products as evidenced through social media platforms where influencers upload ‘hauls’ worth thousands of pounds. So, not only are we complicit in this destructive path of our environment, we reduce ourselves to a generalisable mass. Each member tied by a common denominator, the appealing nature of a small price tag and a random compliment on the street from a person your age.

The fact that we don’t care is the reason that, I know for myself, I feel the need for change. I’m critiquing here the foundation of human nature because that is necessary in addressing this issue. Yet in a more realistic stance, I’m merely just critiquing the fact that we want sustainability and fast fashion to coexist because we want the satisfaction that comes with shopping sustainably.

Perhaps Orwell’s concept of doublethink can be used here in a different context: that the fashion industry holds ‘two contrary beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them’ (Orwell, 1949).  So, with this in mind, the concept of fast fashion and shopping sustainably are held simultaneously, and yet can they ever exist together? The care needed  will come from either a recognition of the self or desperation when we finally become adjusted to the state of our world. Fast fashion at the rate at which it is currently, cannot coexist with the selfish nature of humanity; we need to find this buried sympathy beneath the mounds of fabric, likes, trends, shares.

Fashion consumption’s issue stems from the greed inherent within western society, where the lines between want and need are blurred, due in part to mass publication of products and the rise of ‘influencer culture’. Society’s difficulty in understanding how to simply ‘be’ and not to ‘own’ in this world, within the context of the climate crisis, makes forming and identity, understanding who we are, difficult – ‘man is nothing but what he makes of himself’ (Jean Paul Sartre, quoted in Bonney, 2022). However, there is a futility to what you make of yourself when society and culture is constantly shifting; how do we grasp who we are in this environment of fast-paced disposability? The answer would be to slow everything down, the way things are made and how often we consume.

Our choices to explore who we fully are become limited by the day due to our unethical practices. How is one expected to fully understand oneself in these conditions? Buying clothing seems separate from understanding who we are, what place we hold, and being connected to our own consciousness, but they are linked – ‘the essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection’ (Orwell, 1945). However it seems as though within fast fashion consumption this essence of humanity has become lost. If being aware of the self is indispensable for any substantial change to occur, how does one expect to change the world when we are unable to fully realise, become or understand ourselves, when we are constantly changing clothes?

The alternative we face if we do not slow down consumption, recognise our faults and feel. Anything. Will be what? We will end up consumed and surrounded with an every growing pile of dispensable ‘things’, rotting in our own ignorance, still unable to face the reality of what we have done because we have become too surrounded to even comprehend what life was and is without consumption. The world will no longer have a choice. We will be stripped of choice. But do not fret, you will have an outfit for that. The issue with material things is, there will never be enough, even if physically there is. The idea is more. We want more. We ‘need’ more. We have more. So then what? You have everything now, up to date with all futile, insignificant micro trends that circulate the claustrophobic walls you are now confined in. You have racks and racks of cascading garments. And – well, what else? Well, I ask, would you know who you are then?

Bibliography 

Bonney, T (2022) ‘Man Is Nothing But That Which He Makes Of Himself.” A Discussion Into The Existentialism Of Jean-Paul Sartre’. From  https://thenorthernmonkee.com/2013/03/22/dissertation/

Dean, Christina (2020) ‘Waste – is it really in fashion.’ From https://www.fashionrevolution.org/waste-is-it-really-in-fashion/

Orwell, George (1949) ‘1984’

Orwell, George (1945-1950) ‘In front of your nose’

Wolf, Isobel (2021) ‘How ethical is Shein?’. From https://goodonyou.eco/how-ethical-is-shein/

“The remarkable achievement of the text is to correctly, clearly and captivatingly expose the correlation between historically systemic and modern issues; and how, despite that, women around the globe continue to play an indispensable role in solving them.” – Dan Bernardo

Every day, 37-year-old Zeitu from Ethiopia walks five miles, lugging enough water to support her seven children. [1] Lately, her 15-year-old daughter Zahra has joined her, often missing school as a result. Zeitu and Zahra are by no means alone: millions of women in many rural communities are responsible for maintaining the household’s water, energy, and food supply, as well as childcare. Women make up 50-80% of food production worldwide, yet own only 10% of land. [2] As a result, women make up 70% of the world’s 1.3 billion poor, [3] so are more affected by threats to land and natural resources, and therefore climate change. Moreover, they have less access to technology that would help them to adapt to climate change, and are less involved in decision making, so are unable directly to affect change concerning the environment. 

After the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, 90% of fatalities were women and children. In many cases, women, impeded by clothes or unable to swim due to ideas around modesty, could not flee. [4] This tragedy exemplifies how increasingly common extreme weather events will disproportionately affect women. During climate disasters, women’s responsibilities mean that they must work more, and harder, leaving less time for education and earning income: women are rendered unable to migrate and seek refuge. Furthermore, when struggling financially, families may remove girls from school to work or get married. [5] 

After Hurricane Katrina in the USA, violence from men towards women rose by 98% [6] – just one example of how climate disasters have complex social effects on women which intertwine with their domestic lives. Women’s health often declines after a disaster, due to reduced access to adequate maternity care, or spending long hours in drought conditions that cause heatstroke, and women become more vulnerable to domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking – a concept coined ‘climate violence.’ Men feel they should protect women, and frustration at their failure to do so leads to violence. As the economy suffers after a climate disaster, women struggle more to find jobs; nine in ten countries have laws preventing women from the same economic opportunities as men, including banning women from factory jobs, working at night, or getting a job without permission from husbands. [7]

However, this is not to say that women are utterly helpless in these situations. These expectations imposed on women in many cultures can be harnessed in times of climate disaster. Skills involving water storage, food preservation, and management of natural resources can, with adequate female representation in power, be invaluable. Said representation is sadly minimal, with only one quarter of people brought onto TV to talk about the climate in 2020 being women, [8] and even fewer women of colour. There is, obviously, no evidence to suggest that women are less competent in decision-making roles – quite the contrary; women often recognise the risk around climate change’s proposed ‘solutions’ more. Indeed, white males have been proven to possess a lower risk perception, so are likely to take bigger, more dangerous risks: the ‘white male effect’, [9] a phenomenon proved by the Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WeDo). Perhaps unsurprisingly, carbon dioxide emissions per capita are lower in nations with more women in government, and a study of the European parliament showed that women are more likely to support environmental legislation. [10] 

Moreover, many women internationally have been given agency to recover from and prevent issues arising from climate change. Activist Charlot Magayi established the Mukuru clean stoves initiative to help women in Kenya replace cooking stoves with greener alternatives, and women in Africa are heading the initiative Solar Sister, which helps communities build small-scale solar grids to be more in control of their energy source. The Barefoot College, set up in India, trains women to be solar engineers to, again, control their own energy production. The latest G7 summit had a section on gender and climate change, and charities like ActionAid are working with women to empower them into leadership roles. International financing funds now require systems to include women in programmes- for instance, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, which prioritises women farmers. [11] 

Women all over the world are empowering others and overseeing change. Kenya’s Dr Wangari Maathai was the first African woman and environmentalist to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. While nowadays Greta Thunberg is a familiar female face of the climate activism movement, few remember that Maathai, an African female environmentalist orchestrated the ‘Green Belt movement,’ for women to plant and look after trees. Thanks to this movement, tree nurseries have been built, fifty-one million trees planted in Kenya alone, and women trained in things like beekeeping. [12] 

Another African woman who has made a huge impact is Isatou Ceesay, who founded the One Plastic Bag recycling movement in Gambia, and a project that produces bags made of recycled waste and gives many West African women jobs. Alongside these stories are American marine biologist Rachel Carson, who helped ban DDT and to establish Earth Day, and sailor Emily Penn founded eXXpedition to carry out women-only plastic pollution expeditions. [13] Yet still, there are dozens of unsung female heroes of environmental activism, whose voices are rarely heard. In the USA, two-thirds of those who organise climate strikes are women, [14] and female scientists in Africa are bringing their knowledge of agriculture to laboratories and research departments. 

The only thing that can solve any of these problems is true gender equality, and there are still countless examples of a gender divide evident in any environmental negotiations. For example, the UK leadership team for COP26 was originally 100% men; disparities in vaccine access worldwide meant that who was able to attend COP26 was unjust. [15] Things need to be tackled at the fundamental level: inequalities in job opportunity, domestic roles, and education need to be eradicated. A step towards this should entail women-only policies in any development schemes, and more female representation in decision-making. We must work together to build a ground-level network that stretches worldwide, to ensure that no-one, man, woman, or child, is left behind as the world changes irreversibly every day. 

1 ‘Women and children walk up to 20,000 steps a day for water, reveal WaterAid and Wimbledon Foundation’, Water Aid UK, 9th July 2018 

2 Balgis Osman-Elasha, ‘Women… In the Shadow of Climate Change,’ UN Chronicle, accessed 10th March 2022  

3 Ibid. 

4 How To Save a Planet, ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’,  Spotify podcast, 6:29, September 2021,  

5 ‘Climate Change and Gender’, Action Aid UK, updated 17th November 2021,  

6 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 9:05

7 ‘Climate Change and Gender’, Action Aid UK 

8 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 17:41

9 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 15:14 

10 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 19:43 

11 Joe McCarthy, ‘Understanding Why Climate Change Impacts Women More Than Men’, Global Citizen, 9th March 2020, 

12 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 22:51 

13 ‘Beyond Greta Thunberg: the Women Fighting Against Climate Change’, Acciona, accessed 10th March 2020 

14 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 41:58

15 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 44:51

We asked our 2021 and 2020 Orwell Youth Fellows to interview our new 2022 winners and runners up. Below, 2021 runner-up Marnie McPartland interviews Ruby Kalayil-Peacock about the importance of research and the inspiration behind her essay ‘Women and Climate Change’. You can also read Marnie’s 2021 article ‘Equality in Education’ here.

1. You support your argument with multiple interesting sources. How did you go about your research and what do you think such evidence adds to the piece?

I mainly conducted my research online, using Google, and particularly the websites for the United Nations and ActionAid, both organisations committed to combatting gender inequalities and climate change worldwide. I felt it was important to include plenty of concrete, quantitative evidence in my piece, as it seems that often issues surrounding climate change and gender inequality can feel rather abstract and distant, and I wanted to ensure that I made it clear quite how grave these problems are. There are people who still deny their existence, and so I felt I should prove it using factual evidence.

2. What inspired you to approach the climate crisis from the angle of women’s involvement?

I first heard about the increased effects of the climate crisis on women from a podcast that I was listening to, and was deeply surprised that I had never heard this topic being discussed before. I decided to write this piece to bring about awareness, and thought that if I approached the subject of the climate crisis from a more social angle, not simply an environmental one, I could convey how deeply human beings are affected by what can otherwise feel like a rather abstract concept; as we in the Western world do not often feel the direct effects of the climate crisis, we do not always fully grasp its severity.

3. Do you think your conclusion that inequality in the crisis ‘need[s] to be tackled at a fundamental level’ is achievable?

I do feel that tackling inequality between the sexes at its root, and therefore greatly reducing the increased effects of the climate crisis on women, is achievable. Indeed, I feel it is the only truly effective way of dealing with this ancient issue. A lot of ‘action’ being taken against sexism can be seen as simply papering over the cracks when it is too late, and I think that governments worldwide should make it their mission to tackle disparities in education and job availability between the sexes. I concede that changing deeply-engrained attitudes and practices is by no means easy, but it is certainly achievable.

Find out more about all our Orwell Youth Fellows here and buy their climate crisis zine, Axial Tilt here.

Enter the 2023 Orwell Youth Prize here.

“A short story, strong on detail and told with love, distaste, regret. Describing the town’s gaudy pleasures, the writer shares sadness and foreboding, regret at childhood lost, and ends with a warning that, like coastal towns everywhere, it will be lost to the sea.” – Gillian Clarke

Blackpool.

The Land of Oxymorons. A dull grey slab of land that is sectioned seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and yet the eyesore of The Tower breaks into your vision whenever you turn your head. A Pleasure Beach composed of overpriced food and hours spent standing around, doing nothing except listen to the distant shrieks of other people finally enjoying themselves. A Sandcastle crafted carefully by cranes- made of plastic and metal.

I used to swear, when I was younger and more adamant in the truth of every opinion I had, that I would never drag my own children there. Never watch them be blinded by pulsating LED trams masquerading as trains or boats, and overly bright McDonalds archways that curve over your head like the polished Gates of Hell. Never drag them to walk along a pier that seems to summon its own hurricanes and whip your face with sand, hastily flung from an empty beach. Forever empty. In all my years, I have never seen a swimmer brave that churning sea -a browning grey a few shades darker than a slice of damp, white bread. 

‘Not even fish could swim in there’ was the childish belief that once occupied my mind. Fish were made for clean water- water you could see through. The kind where you could count the grains of sand on its bed; the kind that you find in aquariums, tanks, the backs of pet stores hidden behind the dwarf hamsters and the rabbits. Those were the kinds of water that fish belonged in. Fish didn’t belong in the ocean.

Regardless, my grandparents had visited Blackpool. My parents continued to visit Blackpool. It was as natural as breathing that I would be dragged along to maintain the pattern. So, I endured with petulant eye rolls and grumbled complaints, the trips to the Tower- more often just standing at its feet than a venture to the top-, the humid tours of Madame Tussauds, the yearly firework competitions, and regular browse of the never changing illuminations.

There’s a kind of aching tenderness to it all now, a soft regret that cannot be tamed. A wish to go back and smile at the fishless sea, to beg my mother again for the sugared doughnuts from the green cart at the pier’s end, to just take my earphones out and actually hear the sounds of the town I once despised, instead of the album of Wicked.

Because, despite it all, Blackpool remained a vague ‘home away from home.’ No, we never had a permanent location or even stayed the night at a hotel. The little patchwork moments of joy we made though, were enough to cover the town with a blanket of comfortable familiarity.

There was a reassurance to be found, I realized as I grew, in the way time never seemed to breach that town. A small, involuntary smile couldn’t be helped at the plastic mermaid illuminations, a loveliness in their consistency. The mermaids never changed- golden hair sprawled exaggeratedly around a face that didn’t appear painted quite right- and that was a balm. When all else could change, they never left, and my attachment grew to the point I would become concerned when I forgot their exact placement and believed them removed.

There was a fond annoyance at the sight of the pier where my mask has once fallen from my pocket, and I had to chase after it lest it be swept away to join the heaps of litter on both land and sea. The flustered memory of how bystanders had to turned to watch my sprint after the little, blue nuisance and hollered “Run, Forrest, Run” as though it was an original joke, whilst my brother supported Mum as she cried from laughter.

The humour and slight disgust at the one time Ryan had sneezed, only for the self-summoned hurricane of the town to catch the green snot and send it hurtling directly back into his face, exploding across his glasses like a slimy paintball.

The shared delight of all the times I would grin at my mother and ask her to buy me the doughnuts we both knew we wanted and waited patiently for her to pretend to cave under the pressure. She would always fish out a ten pound note she had prepared for the occasion, but we would act as if it was a merely a convenience each time.

Dancing with my stepdad as we waited for the fireworks to begin, eating the fish and chippy with greasy fingers because everyone knows that the wooden forks are useless. Annual school trips to the Pleasure Beach. Even the silly game of ‘who could spot the entirely-too-visible Tower first’ holds affection for me now.

All seem like traditions that I should have had the option to uphold. But I don’t. You see, Blackpool is going under. According to all the reports, it will be swallowed by the sea by 2050. When I first heard it, I had been suspended by a vague disbelief, my mind stuck on the looping mantra of ‘No, no, that can’t be right.’ Areas of my actual home city are supposed to also be swept into Poseidon’s embrace, but that seems less inconceivable somehow, to me, than Blackpool.

Blackpool was untouchable. Blackpool was timeless. Blackpool was mine, and no one else was supposed to be able to claim it. If only to be a subject of scorn, Blackpool was supposed to be immortal.

But it isn’t.

It will be lost to me now. My favourite eyesore will no longer blind me with its’ abundance of LEDs, I won’t taste the exact sugared doughnuts that I crave, and my children will never dance with me before the fireworks.

I will never take my own family and finally jump on one of those disguised trams and find out where they actually go. I will never have my wife drag me kicking and screaming onto the Big One whilst our kids laugh at my horror. I will never be the swimmer who braves that ocean.

I suppose Blackpool’s Sea will finally have its fish- battered and drifting in the drowned wreckage of an old chippy.

‘You never know what you have until its gone.’ I always found that phrase a touch too condescending, as though whoever was speaking was threatening me, suggesting that unless I acknowledged precisely what it was I had right at that very second, they would snatch it from me.

I know exactly what I had with Blackpool. Memories. The Good, The Bad and The Tolerable. A strong mixture of love and hate that I don’t think any other place will be able to recreate with me, simply because they could never be My Blackpool.

I have lost my Blackpool- it has become my Atlantis. Soon, my elephants will take the place of my childhood dragons. My turtles will become the Loch Ness Monsters of my time: no longer seen but we like to pretend that they’re still there. All that once seemed so untouchable will become nothing more than a handful of memories I share, some words on a page.

And it’ll no doubt be strange, watching my children and realizing that I’m probably going to have to find them their own cities and towns to fondly despair over, now that mine are gone.

I hope we manage to keep my children’s lands afloat.

We asked our 2021 and 2020 Orwell Youth Fellows to interview our new 2022 winners and runners up. Below, 2021 winner Jennifer Yang interviews Cerys Shanks about the importance of place in forming bonds with loved ones, and how travel writing inspired her winning essay ‘Blackpool’. You can also read Jennifer’s 2021 winning essay ‘On Keeping a Time Capsule’ here.

1. In your essay, you mentioned that ‘And it’ll no doubt be strange, watching my children and realizing that I’m probably going to have to find them their own cities and towns to fondly despair over, now that mine are gone.’ If places that we form strong attachment to (like Blackpool) disappear, how, do you think, can we form bonds with loved ones?

I believe that forming connections would certainly be difficult. One of the key parts in good memories, at least for me, is where they took place, because you can’t help but smile when you return to those locations. However, one of the key parts of being human is our ability to adapt, and we can connect through this. If you can’t bond through a mutual place, then there will be other things, like favourite foods, music, sports and hobbies. The main issue is that a lot of these factors are interconnected, and as a result the climate crisis has the potential to damage all of them. 

2. I noticed that your prose style is dense and rich, maintaining paradoxical emotions such as love and hate – are there authors with similar styles that you particularly admire? 

My prose style has developed over the years. I have a habit where whenever I read a book, my writing becomes alarmingly similar to the author’s style for a short period until I find the next novel. As a result, I can’t say for definite if there are any particular authors that share a similar style, although there probably are, because I tend to think of my writing as a strange blend of every book I’ve read and enjoyed. My favourite authors and styles tend to change constantly as a result.

3. Except for the experience of going to Blackpool regularly, are there essays/ stories/ poems that inspired your writing? 

Whilst I was trying to write my entry for the Orwell Youth Prize, we were discussing travel writing in English Language as a possible option for coursework. Quite a few of the samples provided to us included descriptions and a slightly mocking edge towards the towns or cities. This definitely inspired the idea behind my piece.

Find out more about all our Orwell Youth Fellows here and buy their climate crisis zine, Axial Tilt here.

Enter the 2023 Orwell Youth Prize here.

These resources are designed as a jumping-off point for students entering our writing prize on the theme, ‘Acts of Courage’.

They are not intended to be a complete guide, but rather to inspire ideas, help you explore different angles, and point you towards reliable, balanced information. Courage can mean many different things. It might mean standing up to someone more powerful than you, speaking out when other people remain silent, defending somebody who is being treated unfairly, challenging an idea you disagree with, admitting that you were wrong, or finding the courage to do something that scares you.

Whether you’re writing an article, an essay, a story, or even a poem, research can help you explore what courage means in the world around you. You might find stories of people who have taken enormous risks, discover examples of everyday courage, or come across arguments that make you rethink what it means to be brave.

We asked writer and researcher Sujana Crawford to tell us a little about her own research methods – read her tips for getting started here.

For George Orwell, courage was closely linked to intellectual honesty. He famously defined freedom as the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. This meant having the moral courage to speak uncomfortable truths and challenge prevailing orthodoxies, even when doing so invited intense backlash.

“If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” George Orwell, ‘The Freedom of the Press’

Orwell’s own life embodied this principle. He risked his physical safety fighting in the Spanish Civil War, where he was badly wounded. Later, while suffering from severe tuberculosis, he lived on the remote Scottish island of Jura while writing Nineteen Eighty-Four, driven by a desire to expose the dangers of totalitarianism.

In his essays and journalism, Orwell often championed the underdog while refusing to romanticise any political party or movement. He believed that writers had a responsibility to face unpleasant facts, even when those facts were inconvenient to their own political commitments.

The Orwell Foundation continues this tradition by recognising intellectual courage in political writing and reporting: the willingness to investigate, question, challenge and write honestly without simply following the crowd.

Writing is a creative process, but research can help you discover the people, ideas and events behind the things you want to write about. You might come across surprising acts of courage, untold stories, difficult questions, or people who found courage in circumstances where they had very little power.

As 2026 Orwell Prize for Political Writing winner Karen Bartlett put it:

“All my books have a historical impulse, but without political purpose I’d never start and without enthusiasm I’d never finish. Most of my books are about people fighting for justice … We all know that human beings can be terrible, but I am always motivated to write about those who are also turn out to be amazingly brave and heroic.”

What does courage mean?

Before you start researching, think about what you mean by courage.

Is courage about doing something frightening? Is it possible to be brave without being physically courageous? Can telling the truth be an act of courage? What about changing your mind? Is standing up to your friends sometimes braver than standing up to an obvious enemy?

You might want to explore the difference between courage, heroism and recklessness. Does doing something dangerous automatically make someone brave? Or does courage depend on why they did it?

You could also think about whether courage is always visible. Some forms of courage happen in public, such as protesting or speaking in front of a crowd. Others happen privately: asking for help, leaving an abusive situation, admitting a mistake, defending someone who is being bullied, or continuing with something difficult when nobody else knows how hard it is.

Think about the people you consider brave. What have they actually risked? Their safety? Their reputation? Their friendships? Their career? Their freedom? Their lives?

And who gets remembered as a hero? Are there forms of courage that are less visible, or people whose courage has been overlooked?

The Amnesty International resource Here I Stand: Stories That Speak for Freedom contains stories and poems exploring courage, solidarity, freedom and standing up against injustice.

Our very own Trainee Trustees have been thinking about courage too…

Bella says:

‘I believe that in order to be courageous, you have to first be scared. A veteran actor is not as brave as someone who stands up and delivers their part with shaking hands. A thrill-seeking skydiver is not as brave as someone who parachutes out of a burning plane. Courage is uncomfortable. It forces you to change shape, to adapt, to grow.

Bravery comes from finding the thing that matters more to you than your fear. This could be a dream, a loved one, or a political cause – sometimes it’s simply the desire to live freely and authentically. Often the things that make us brave are, helpfully, also the things that inspire us to write – this was certainly the case for Orwell, whose relentless pursuit of his principles galvanised his writing and not infrequently put him in harm’s way.

Bravery is passion that defies your instincts. First, find what scares you and then, find what you hold dear. Courage will follow.’

Eleni says:

‘Courage is the ability to speak, act, and exist as one’s authentic self. It doesn’t mean acting without fear, but instead having the courage to adapt and continue forward despite being afraid. It means being motivated by a personal ethos and set of values that allow for acts of strength and authenticity despite adversity. George Orwell showed courage in a range of ways, such as risking his life in the Spanish Civil War, choosing to resign from a job that didn’t align with his values, and publishing books and essays that were censored and lost him allies in publishing. However, it can also be seen in smaller actions, such as allowing for personal growth, speaking up against bullying, showing persistence in a class or a job you don’t always enjoy, or choosing to express yourself despite the fear of judgement.

Fundamentally, to show courage is to be honest with yourself and to prioritise a moral conviction above potential consequences. Whether this is shown loudly through globally recognised acts of political resistance, or quietly through prioritising authenticity in your everyday life, courage is a bridge between the person you are and the person you want to be.’

Standing up to power

Some of the most famous examples of courage involve people challenging those with much greater power than themselves.

Why do people decide to speak out when they know there may be consequences? What makes someone willing to risk their job, reputation, freedom or even their life for something they believe in?

Orwell provides one example. He fought against fascism in Spain because he believed that the conflict was about more than the politics of one country. His experience there also changed his understanding of propaganda and political truth, and became an important influence on his later writing.

You could research:

1/ George Orwell and the Spanish Civil War

2/ Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

3/ Nelson Mandela and the struggle against apartheid

4/ Emmeline Pankhurst and the women’s suffrage movement

5/ The Civil Rights Movement

But remember that courage does not have to belong to famous historical figures. Orwell encouraged us to look at what is in front of our nose. You could look for stories of people in your own community who have challenged injustice, campaigned for change or stood up for somebody else.

What makes an ordinary person decide that something is important enough to take a risk?

Courage and journalism

What does it mean to be a brave journalist?

Journalists sometimes have to report from war zones, investigate powerful organisations, expose corruption or tell stories which governments, businesses or powerful people would rather remain hidden.

But courage in journalism does not necessarily mean putting yourself in physical danger. It can also mean spending months investigating something nobody wants you to investigate, publishing an unpopular story, admitting an error, or allowing people whose experiences are often ignored to tell their own stories.

The Orwell Foundation’s own Orwell Prizes celebrate writing and reporting that combines political purpose with clarity, courage and fidelity to truth.

In 2026, the Orwell Prize for Political Writing recognised Karen Bartlett’s The Escape from Kabul, while Fatemeh Jamalpour was a finalist for For the Sun After Long Nights. Their books offer very different examples of what courageous political writing can look like.

Jamalpour was banned from journalism in Iran and told by interrogators that she could not produce any kind of content. She continued to write, recording her interrogations, and later reported from the streets of Tehran during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising.

“I felt a responsibility: if they were in prison, I had to report from the streets of Tehran, to watch and write.”

Fatemeh Jamalpour, For the Sun After Long Nights — Political Writing finalist 2026

She describes writing under dictatorship as having both a political and historical purpose:

“My reporting may not change events immediately, but it documents them for the future — so that one day people will know the long and painful road we travelled toward freedom.”

Fatemeh Jamalpour, For the Sun After Long Nights

You can read more about Jamalpour and the other 2026 Political Writing finalists here.

You could also explore Andrey Kurkov’s Three Years on Fire, which documents his experience of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the realities of living through war.

Ask yourself: What does it take to keep writing when someone is trying to stop you?

Courage and bearing witness

Sometimes courage means making sure that something is not forgotten.

Ukrainian novelist, poet and human rights activist Victoria Amelina left her career as a fiction writer after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She began working as a war crimes researcher, documenting evidence of atrocities and helping to preserve the stories of people affected by the war.

Among other things, Amelina helped uncover the buried diary of Ukrainian children’s author Volodymyr Vakulenko, who had been executed after his abduction by Russian forces.

Her story raises difficult questions about the relationship between writing, truth and responsibility.

What makes someone decide to stop writing fiction and begin documenting reality? What does it mean to preserve someone’s story after they are gone? Is documenting an injustice itself an act of resistance?

You could explore the work of journalists, historians, photographers, human rights investigators and ordinary people who have documented events which others wanted to conceal.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and Amnesty International also provide resources on conflict, human rights and the protection of civilians.

Speaking out

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is say something when everyone else is staying quiet.

This could mean challenging a racist joke, defending someone who is being bullied, reporting wrongdoing, questioning an authority figure, or telling someone that their behaviour is unacceptable.

But speaking out can have consequences. You might lose friends, be criticised online, damage your reputation or find yourself isolated from the people around you.

This raises some interesting questions:

• When should we speak out?
• Is it ever right to remain silent?
• Does courage require risk?
• Why can it be so difficult to disagree with our friends?
• Does social media make speaking out easier or harder?
• What happens when speaking out makes you unpopular?

You could research whistleblowers – people who expose wrongdoing from inside organisations. What motivates them? What happens to them afterwards? What protections should they have?

You could also explore journalists who have risked their safety or careers to report stories that people in positions of power would rather keep hidden.

The Committee to Protect Journalists documents attacks on journalists around the world and the risks involved in reporting difficult stories.

Orwell’s writing repeatedly returned to the importance of speaking honestly, even when doing so was uncomfortable. In essays such as ‘Politics and the English Language’, he argued that language could be used to conceal reality rather than describe it.

What would you be willing to say if you knew that some people would be angry with you for saying it?

Courage and activism

Young people have often been at the centre of campaigns for social and political change. Sometimes courage means taking to the streets; sometimes it means organising a campaign, persuading other people, writing to a politician or simply being the first person to say that something is wrong.

The UNICEF Youth Action Guide provides practical advice on advocacy, research, networking, action planning and campaigning.

The UNICEF UK Youth Advocacy Toolkit offers advice on choosing an issue, developing a campaign and communicating with decision-makers.

Amnesty International UK also has a Youth Activist Toolkit with advice on starting groups, organising campaigns and taking action on human rights.

Ask yourself: What makes someone courageous enough to act? And what makes it difficult for people to act together?

Courage and disagreement

It can take courage to change your mind.

We often think of courage as standing firmly by what we believe. But what happens when new evidence shows that we were wrong?

Changing your mind can mean admitting that you misunderstood something, apologising to someone, or accepting that an argument you believed was convincing does not stand up to scrutiny.

Orwell was deeply concerned with the dangers of political conformity. His writing repeatedly challenged the pressure to accept ideas simply because everyone around you appeared to believe them.

The Orwell Foundation’s criteria for the Orwell Prizes include critical thought and intellectual courage. These qualities involve questioning assumptions rather than simply accepting the views of the people around you.

Ask yourself: Is it braver to defend your beliefs, or to change them when the evidence demands it?

Courage and everyday life

Courage does not always make the news.

Think about the kinds of courage you encounter in everyday life. Someone might move to a new country and have to build an entirely new life. Someone might tell their friends that they are struggling. Someone might stand up for a classmate who is being bullied. Someone might challenge a prejudice they have previously held themselves.

These stories can be just as interesting as stories about famous heroes.

You might interview someone you know about a moment when they had to be brave. Ask them:

• What were you afraid would happen?
• Why did you decide to act?
• Did anyone help you?
• What happened afterwards?
• Would you make the same decision again?
• Did you feel brave at the time?

Remember to ask permission before using somebody else’s personal story in your writing, and be sensitive when discussing experiences that may be difficult or private.

When courage goes wrong

Not everything described as courage is necessarily brave.

History is full of people who have taken enormous risks for causes which caused terrible harm to others. People can also use the language of courage to justify violence, cruelty or reckless behaviour.

This gives you another interesting question to explore: Can something be courageous and wrong at the same time?

What is the difference between courage and recklessness?

Is someone brave if they are willing to hurt themselves? What about if they are willing to hurt someone else?

Can a person be courageous in service of a bad cause?

You might find that thinking about these questions makes your definition of courage much more complicated – and much more interesting.

Creative Forms

The Orwell Youth Prize supports many different forms of writing and mediums for expression.

You could write an essay about an issue that requires courage to discuss. You could write a piece of journalism about someone who has stood up for others. You could write a short story about a character facing a difficult choice. You could write a poem about fear, resistance or resilience.

You could even create a game in which the player has to make difficult moral choices.

If you are interested in Game Design, you can start with this video made by Youth Prize Winner Benjamin McEwan.

We welcome both concepts and games themselves, and here are some places you can turn your narratives into games:

1/ Twine is a great place to start because it can be used to create interactive, nonlinear stories without needing coding knowledge.

2/ This helpful Twine guide may help.

3/ Godot Engine

Think about how the form you choose might change the way your reader experiences courage. Would a poem communicate fear differently from an essay? Could a game make a reader experience the consequences of a difficult decision?

Full-length Fiction Works

There are lots of novels which explore courage, fear, resistance and morality.

You might start with:

George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief

Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses

Lois Lowry’s The Giver

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner

Poems

Poetry can be a powerful way of exploring courage.

You might explore:

‘Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou

‘Invictus’ by William Ernest Henley

‘If—’ by Rudyard Kipling

‘The Hill We Climb’ by Amanda Gorman

‘Caged Bird’ by Maya Angelou

You could also look for poems written by people who have experienced war, imprisonment, exile, discrimination or political repression.

What does courage look, feel, or sound like in a poem?

Our Youth Fellows suggest…

Paul Gallico’s The Snow Goose

Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Prize-winning Inspiration

Below are some previous Orwell Youth Prize entries which might inspire you to think about this year’s theme.

Look beyond the subject matter and ask yourself what is courageous about the writing itself. Is the writer tackling something difficult? Challenging an assumption? Telling a story that is usually ignored? Taking an unusual creative risk?

‘The Faceless Drug’ by 2019 Junior Winner Francesca Morgan explores the death penalty through fiction.

‘Brick Lane: A Case Against Social and Ethnic Exclusion in Britain’ by 2019 Winner Asher Gibson explores social and ethnic exclusion in Britain.

‘If Liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear’ by 2016 Winner Alexander Butcher explores free speech and censorship – and asks what it means to defend the right to express unpopular ideas.

You could also explore The Orwell Youth Prize’s previous winners and see how young writers have approached difficult subjects in very different ways.

Ready to get started?

You don’t need to find the biggest or most dramatic example of courage.

Start with something that interests you.

Think about something you have seen, experienced, read about or disagreed with.

Then start researching.

Talk to people. Read different perspectives. Look for evidence. Follow stories beyond the headline.

Be prepared to discover that your first idea was incomplete or even wrong (!).

And remember that courage can be part of the writing process too. Sometimes the most interesting thing you can write is the thing you have been wondering about but have been afraid to ask, or put on paper before.

Once you’ve started exploring the theme, head to our Find Your Form page to start thinking about which form will allow you to best express your ideas.

“This is a unique, well-written and interesting piece, which explores how small, persistent changes can impact an individual’s entire life course. It also demonstrates how the kindness of one person can contribute to changing someone else’s life, providing a sincere depiction on the impact of helping young people in difficult situations.” – Jessica Johnson

Part 1

It started with a glass of water, subsequent to waking up. I had read the health benefits
online, including how it could give you a burst of energy in the morning. Exactly what I
needed. This was my starting small.

It was 2019, 4 months after my 16th birthday, when It was necessary for me to move out.
Circumstantial. Much like a baby bird set to dispatch from its nest, able to fly, yet still
vulnerable. However, I fortunately had years of taking care of myself under my little belt.
Cooking, cleaning and being responsible for my emotional well being, the things a mother or
father may be responsible for. Longlands was where I found myself. Right at the heart of
Middlesbrough; where housing was cheap. An eminently working class area, wrapped in the
decay of its industrial past, pervaded with violence, crime, amongst many other things.
Nothing I wasn’t used to. Now alone, an empowering yet corrupting freedom overwhelmed
me, driving me away from college.

Consequently, after a few months, I accumulated a new group of friends. Acquaintances in
retrospect. Vivacious types, though flippant. I believe it is Jim Rhon who famously said “You
are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”. A statement, which I’m
ashamed to admit is truth laden. Each other weekend was spent frivolously, then every
weekend, until we had justified almost everyday of the week to be one for drinking. It took 5
months for these actions to finally catch up with me. Due to a breach of tenancy caused by
excessive noise and partying, I was asked to leave. I did. I was now overwhelmed by a
sense of excitement and relief; to have knowledge of a new, hopefully more positive
direction, despite not knowing quite where that was.

It was now required of me to live with an adult, social services no longer trusted me. This
was May time; spring was in full swing. I stayed with my mum until I was introduced to the
man whose house I was to live in, there was no alternative. lockdown had limited my options
greatly. The house was in a small town, fairly quiet, 30 minutes drive from my previous
home, well maybe not a home, a house. The man, Adrian, was kind and roughly aged 30
something, that’s all I could really tell at first, and so I moved in just a little under a week
later. I was shown to my designated bedroom, small, but canny and very clean and began to
unpack my belongings. When my social worker had left, it was just Adrian and I. What to do
next I wasn’t sure. I left my bedroom door open as I didn’t want to seem ill mannered.
Adrian, shuffling about the house just like me unaware what to do with a stranger in his
home, came to tell me that he was always there to talk, and if I needed anything, just to ask.
He kept this promise.

Now in a much more stable position, I felt inclined to make the decision to change the
direction of my life. And such a satisfactory one after months of feeling as though my future
was not in my control. I made the decision to not just go back to sixth form but to repeat year
12. I asked my teachers, to which fortunately they agreed. And so, I was set to start the year
anew.

This wasn’t the only new thing for me. Seeing Adrian get out of bed in the morning, and go to
work everyday was new to me too. I didn’t really know anyone who had a job other than my teachers. All of my mum’s friends stayed at home with children watching tv, if social services
hadn’t already taken their children away. Another new thing was restaurants. Of course I’d
been in restaurants a few times with friends, even worked in them when times were hard, but
I had never been with a parent. Adrian and I went for breakfasts,
lunches and dinners at least one a week (once lockdown was lifted). Breakfast was my
favorite. We would sit by the window, watching inaudible hordes of people rushing by.
Watching the world in motion, coffee in hand with its tantalising steam unfurling in the
morning air. The sun’s delicate rays streaming through the window, warming my skin.

Part 2

It started with a glass of water, subsequent to waking up. I had read the health benefits
online, including how it could give you a burst of energy in the morning . Exactly what I
needed. This was my starting small. I had also read it takes 21 days to build a habit, this is
what I intended to do: build habits, healthy ones. Bit by bit, I dedicated myself to building a
morning routine, fit for a student. This included waking up at 5am, some may say
excruciatingly early, exercising, practising gratitude, reading and so on. Morning became my
favorite time of day.

September came quick enough, and the return to sixth form was fairly smooth, despite a
new year of people who I didn’t know. Although I made no conscious effort to make friends, I
did remain amiable, as always. I had been a consistent D grade student the latter end of my
secondary experience. I had never got an outstanding, or even good grade. Now in the
same position as most of those around me with a new year, I was no longer going to be that
blasè student, who produced such subpar work. Instead, I was going to achieve something I
had never achieved before, grades I was proud of. I now had someone in my life other than
myself who was interested in my education, Adrian. He would ask what I had learnt that day,
did I enjoy college and most striking of all to me, what university I wanted to attend. This
engagement was such a stark contrast to the slurred, insouciant “Aw ye” I would receive
from my mother when trying to tell her what I had learnt at school as a child. I suppose such
things don’t interest everyone. At the start of my journey in a new direction, I held a lot of
resentment for my mother. I don’t anymore, I learnt to let go. How freeing it was. I realise
now that grasping on to such feelings would only hold me back, like a tin can on the end of a
kite, desperate to fly. It struck me that maybe the past can’t change, but I can.

How to answer Adrian’s question, I didn’t really know. No one I can recall had ever asked me
if or what university I wanted to attend. This would imply they believed I wanted to go to uni,
could get into uni. This would imply that they had faith, so no one ever asked.

One day, while in sixth form, I overheard a conversation discussing university. Whoever it
was, wanted to go to Oxford. I was stunned by this. Being from the North East I believed
Oxford was for ‘smart rich people’, and that it was impossible to get in there. With my
curiosity sparked, I took to Google and searched for the course I was interested in on the
Oxford website. I wanted to see what Oxford life was like and what grades I needed. From
here it was clear to me, what I wanted and how I was going to achieve it. I was to get no less
than 3 A’s at the end of year 13, to study literature and english language. My dream course
at what was now my dream university.

The stereotypes of Oxford students, and me not fitting that (especially being of ethnic origin),
had not discouraged me. The knowledge of such a place, with so many people to converse
with on an intellectual level excited me. I intended to build my cultural capital, something I
had never really paid attention to before. For me this included reading classic literature (now
my preferred genre), starting violin lessons, writing, and expanding my vocabulary. Although
this may seem like a desperate effort to fit a mould I’am destined not to fit, such things are
so natural to me now. As though it’s what I should have always been doing. As though I’ve
been missing out.

Part 3

Adrian and I no longer live together. We parted on peaceful terms in November, due to my
need for independence. The progress I made while with Adrian had given social services the
trust they needed to allow me to live independently again. I could not express more how
grateful I am for what he offered me, stability. Now I live in a flat, closer to Sixth Form. I
adjusted exceedingly quickly as I always do. I remain with the same habits, and my mental
health as stable as it was previously with Adrian. I can every so often become indifferent to
my studies while at home. However, the reminder of my future provides sufficient motivation
to get back to it. The vision of my clothes, my books, my life in boxes in the boot of a car,
ready to drive and unpack in my room, at Oxford University.

Still, I intend to go in this new direction. To break my family’s cycle which none have
attempted to break. To walk a path that no one has paved for me but myself. To make no
one proud but myself.

It started with a glass of water, subsequent to waking up. This was my starting small.

“Incredibly informative and well-researched, providing readers with a solution to the vicious cycle of homelessness. What particularly stands out is the author’s creativity and ability to explain the complexities of the ProxyAddress system through something as simple as sending a letter to Father Christmas, making it more understandable for those reading.” – Jessica Johnson

Each year as the nights draw in, temperatures drop, and the glow of fairy lights on trees
illuminates each window, 800,000 children across the country write a letter with their
Christmas wishes and post it to the Royal Mail’s special address: “Santa/Father Christmas,
Santa’s Grotto, Reindeerland XM4 5HQ”.[1] The magical land full of soft, powdery snow and
populated by elves where these letters arrive is, in actuality, a sorting office in the urban
centre of Belfast. This demonstrates that simply by changing a line in the Royal Mail’s
database, addresses do not have to function as destinations, but merely as routing
instructions.

“Addresses don’t belong to properties,” Chris Hildrey notes.[2] Despite our tendency to
develop an emotional attachment to them, in the UK we do not buy our addresses when we
buy a house. Addresses are a public code intended to be used to describe the location of our
homes, with our street names assigned by local councils and our postcodes by Royal Mail.[3] However, the function of addresses has evolved to represent more than just a location, and
they now act as a de facto form of identity used to access a wide variety of services. In 2005
the World Bank said that “An individual without an address has no civic identity”, and this
reliance on addresses has only proliferated since then.[4]

At the same time as those 800,000 children were writing their letters, 200,000 households in
England were homeless over Christmas in 2020.[5] For thousands of people each year, the
drawing in of the cold winter nights is not a happy reminder that the joyful Christmas season
is approaching, but instead poses a considerable threat to their health, as the freezing
temperatures combined with oversubscribed homeless hostels and shelters can have a
potentially deadly effect. The average life expectancy of a homeless person is just 47, compared to 77 in the general population.[6] And the problems are getting worse. Homelessness is rising.

For every 10 people sleeping rough in 2010, there were 24 in 2019.[7] If homelessness is
increasing rather than decreasing, then it is woefully apparent that the current systems of
support we have in place do not work anywhere near as effectively as we need them to.
With 97% less government-built affordable housing available than in 2010, the single biggest
cause of homelessness in the UK is now the end of private tenancy.[8] The only way to fix this
is to build 4 million new affordable homes, which takes time people currently don’t have.[9]

Our address is far more integral to our identity and access to services than most of us
realise. A fixed address is necessary as a form of identification for individuals to receive
benefits, see a GP, receive post, apply for job opportunities, use libraries, set up mobile
phone contracts and open bank accounts.[10] These are the exact services and opportunities
that are perhaps at their most essential when people are at risk of becoming, or have newly
become, homeless. These systems should create a safety net that provides some stability
and support to allow people to recover. However, as addresses now function as
identification, the loss of one leaves you unable to access these services when you are most
vulnerable: the safety net has a gaping hole in it. Homelessness is characterised in almost all
cases by instability, but if a stable address is needed to access support to escape
homelessness, then the system is stuck in a vicious cycle, continuously failing those that
most desperately need its support.

Wider reform is evidently essential in terms of systems in place to support those
experiencing homelessness. With local councils experiencing budget cuts of over 40% since
2010, and financial constraints only exacerbated by the Covid-19 global pandemic, it is
proving difficult for councils to provide the support the homeless need.[11] So, we need a
cost-effective short-term solution in order to help us bridge the gap until councils are able to
cover the costs of the wider change we need.

ProxyAddress is a new design project by architect Chris Hildrey. It could potentially provide
what is needed this interim by creating duplicate addresses for homeless people to help
them access support. The concept is fairly simple, operating along the same principles as the
Royal Mail’s special address for Father Christmas. There are over 270,000 long-term empty
homes in the UK, and by duplicating their addresses with the explicit permission of property
owners and allocating them to homeless people through their local council, the gaping hole
in the safety net begins to close.[12] Having a stable address facilitates access to the services
most needed to retain or regain independence. In the context of post, the ProxyAddress
functions as a routing instruction as opposed to a final destination. Mail addressed to a
person at their ProxyAddress can be redirected to a collection point of their choice. As a
copy of an address, a ProxyAddress is not tied to a place, but only to a person. This allows it
to remain constant and stable for the person experiencing homelessness, no matter how
much they are forced to move during their recovery journey.[13] In addition to this, it also
provides privacy and protection from societal stigma surrounding homelessness, as from the
outside looking in, it appears to be a stable address like any other.[14]

ProxyAddress has gained significant support and recognition, including being named as one
of the ‘best new solutions for the capital’ at the 2018 London Conference. [15] In October 2020, the first trial of ProxyAddress began in the London Borough of Lewisham, with 20 homeless people being given a ProxyAddress.[16] Despite this small-scale initial
implementation, there are already success stories. Speaking to BBC News in April 2021, Gary
Bester described how his ProxyAddress enabled him to secure a six-week job as a labourer,
and then as a sales manager, now meaning that he has been able to move out of his
temporary accommodation at a hostel.[17]

It is evident that ProxyAddress has incredible potential to help us mend the hole in our
safety net and catch people before they fall off the cliff edge. The success of the initial trial
in Lewisham provides plenty of reason for optimism at the potential of this being rolled out
over a much wider area. While there is still a long way to go in helping to prevent homelessness, ProxyAddress is an outstanding innovation that takes an important first step in the right direction.

FOOTNOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Crisis. (2020). More than 200,000 households across England will be homeless this
Christmas. [online] Available at:
https://www.crisis.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/more-than-200-000-households-across-england-will-be-homeless-this-christmas/ [Accessed 24 Apr. 2021].

Farvacque-Vitkovic, C., Godin, L., Leroux, H., Verdet, F. and Chavez, R. (2005). Street
Addressing and the Management of Cities. [online], p.21. Available at:
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/7342/329230Street0Addressing01not0external1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y [Accessed 24 Apr. 2021].

Lewisham Council. (2020). Lewisham Council first in the country to take part in
ground-breaking pilot to help people experiencing homelessness. [online] Available at:
https://lewisham.gov.uk/articles/news/groundbreaking-pilot-to-help-people-experiencing-homelessness [Accessed 24 Apr. 2021]

Manthorpe, R. (2018). The radical plan to give every homeless person an address. [online] Wired UK. Available at:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/proxy-address-design-museum-homelessness
[Accessed 24 Apr. 2021].

Molina, S. (2020). Addressing homelessness in cities: ProxyAddress in London. [online] The
Urban Activist. Available at:
https://theurbanactivist.com/idea/addressing-homelessness-in-cities-proxyaddress-in-london/ [Accessed 24 Apr. 2021].

www.proxyaddress.co.uk. (2020). ProxyAddress. [online] Available at:
https://www.proxyaddress.co.uk/ [Accessed 24 Apr. 2021].

Prescott, K. (2021). “Having an address got me a job when I was homeless.” BBC News.
[online] 2 Apr. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56402018 [Accessed 24
Apr. 2021].

The Connection at St Martin’s. (2019). Is homelessness increasing or decreasing? [online] Available at: https://www.connection-at-stmartins.org.uk/facts-about-homelessness/is-homelessness-increasing-or-decreasing/. [Accessed 24 Apr. 2021].

Thomas, B. (2012). Homelessness kills: An analysis of the mortality of homeless people in
early twenty-first century England Summary. [online], p4 Available at:
https://www.crisis.org.uk/media/236799/crisis_homelessness_kills_es2012.pdf [Accessed
24 Apr. 2021].

“A powerful and original interpretation of this years’ theme, drawing the link between the local environment and the climate and ecological crisis, the defining issue of our time. A piece of journalistic work, written with flair and urgency.” – Adam Cantwell-Corn

On the muddy salt marshes of Titchwell, waders jostle for space: mousy brown dunlin with down-curved beaks; little silvery-grey knot; inquisitive redshanks with bright scarlet legs and speckled fronts; oystercatchers cheerfully pipe, digging their vibrant tangerine-coloured bills into the saltmarsh; miniscule sanderlings, like tiny clockwork mice sprint across the mudflats.

Like many of Norfolk’s wetlands, RSPB Titchwell Nature Reserve is vulnerable, under threat from the effects of climate change, including sea level rise and increasing storm surge tides. The frequency of natural hazards like floods and coastal storm surges has more than doubled worldwide in just 35 years. According to the Wildlife Trust, we have already lost 90% of our wetland habitats in the last 100 years.

Wetlands habitat loss is generally ignored with disproportionate attention placed on rainforests. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust says that 40% of the World’s wildlife depends on freshwater wetlands, but we are losing these valuable habitats three times faster than forests. The time bomb of climate change is ticking, but with imagination, we can mitigate some of its effects on Wetlands. A new direction would be to protect Norfolk’s wetlands, starting small, by creating new wetlands.

So why do wetlands matter? Wetlands help mitigate the impact of climate change with their ability to store large amounts of carbon and also protect against extreme weather events, by soaking up water, protecting people and property. If these ecosystems are not protected, they could release huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and speed up the effects of climate change.

And why specifically are Norfolk’s wetlands vital? The aforementioned dunlin, knot, redshanks, oystercatchers and sanderlings are all amber listed species, meaning they are species causing
concern because they are in decline. Norfolk’s globally significant wetlands support 25 bird species in internationally significant amounts. According to the Ramsar Convention up to 40% of the world’s species live and breed in wetlands, but more than 25% of wetlands plants and animals are in danger of extinction, including water voles, lost from 94% of places they once lived. Norfolk is also home to red list birds including lapwing and curlew: this means they are the highest conservation priority, needing urgent action.

Some birds previously extinct from the UK have been reintroduced into the Norfolk wetlands, further emphasising why this place matters: the common crane, avocets, spoonbills, marsh harriers, black-tailed godwit and bitterns have all returned. I have been entranced before by the marsh harriers, sweeping over the landscape like ancient prehistoric predators, gliding on their fingered wings.

It is our global responsibility. Norfolk is vital for migration routes. The Wash is one of the most significant estuaries in Europe: millions of migratory birds, including a quarter of all Western Europe’s waders, arrive each year to feed and rest as they have for millennia. If you too had seen the magic of flocks of swans like white flares on a winter’s dusk, returning to Welney in Norfolk, then you would understand how important these habitats are: Bewick’s swans had declined by 95% in 25 years according to the RSPB’s State of Birds report. These same swans had flown from the Arctic, squadrons sweeping over the oceans all the way to get here.

Durham University researchers have estimated that coastal wetlands, like the ones in Norfolk, could start to disappear from the year 2040 due to rapid rises in sea levels. Once Wetlands are gone, they are gone forever. If we lose them, then there would be less magic in the World as a whole.

I have been mesmerised by watching flocks of knot and plover in Norfolk, like the glittering scales of silver bream, the swirling, flexing cloud fragmenting, condensing and whirling, like liquid mercury glimmering. It undulates and curls, moving in a perfectly synchronised way like iron filings from magnets, curling and spiralling in a wild arc through the air.

We can save disappearing wetlands by having the imagination to create new ones. Starting small we need to work with farmers and landowners, get political support and funding for wetland creation in Norfolk. An example of starting small was Lakenheath Fen in East Anglia, converted from a carrot farm into a wildlife site that is now home to many threatened species, including the crane. When areas of RSPB Titchwell were lost because of the changing coast, new lagoons were created to compensate for the losses. In Holland, reclaiming land created wetland where birds like spoonbills and sea eagles inhabit. Protected areas should be linked, rather than speckled over Norfolk, because one large habitat is much less likely to be affected by climate change than lots of smaller ones. If wildlife charities can continue to buy wetlands in Norfolk and join their reserves together, then they might save them from disappearing forever. Education in the UK should include wetlands in the curriculum to make more join the fight. Creating new wetlands to compensate for the losses due to climate change will take time, so we need to act now.

On a flat grey winter’s day, I stalked a curlew at Titchwell. Its cry was hope’s lament in quivering ripples; a sound of the ancient wild, uncopiable, unmakeable, yet I know this once familiar sound is vanishing. One day, maybe in my lifetime, there won’t be a curlew for me to hear.

Creating new wetlands is a small step with massive potential impact. If we act now, we can do it. As the WWT states, ‘If the rainforests are the lungs of the planet, then the wetlands are the lifeblood.’ Don’t let the lifeblood of the planet spill away into nothingness.

Wyn Grant is emeritus professor of politics at Warwick University.  His book ‘Political Football’ will be published by Agenda Books in June 2021.  He is secretary of the vice-presidents club at Leamington Football Club and a regular contributor to their programme.  He writes regularly for the Charlton fanzine Voice of the Valley.  His football blog is athttps://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/ 

Football teams are rooted in places.  Their names reflect a particular location and provide a means of identity with that place, not least for people who have moved away.  Yet, over the last few decades, that link between football and place has been shaken in a way that has important political implications.

If one goes back a hundred or even fifty years most clubs were owned by locally based businessmen. Even if the players did not come from the locality, and some of them always did, they lived nearby, often in relatively modest houses provided by the club.   They would come to the ground by bus or walk, mixing with fans on the way.

Football has now been globalised. For the leading clubs the number of followers they have round the world far exceed those in the ground on match day.  Many of these followers may never visit the ground, but they are a market for the club’s merchandise.  Firms from around the world will sponsor the club’s kit, even items like corner flags.  (Mlily is the official global mattress and pillow partner of Manchester United.)

This matters because globalisation raises a number of issues, including foreign ownership of clubs and the treatment of migrants, some of whom come to Europe with a dream of playing football.   Globalisation has slowed down in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic but not in football where private equity firms see an opportunity to acquire clubs at knockdown prices. However, it also provides an opportunity to use football to bring about positive change across the world.

Clubs do still try and play a role in their local communities. Many are located in or near deprived areas and make efforts to tackle poverty or to offer sporting opportunities to youngsters.

In some ways, place has become more important than person in electoral politics.  In the 2019 general election, the Conservative Party successfully appealed to so-called ‘red wall’ seats with disadvantaged economic geographies.

A Case Study: Manchester City

Few clubs have been through bigger changes than Manchester City.   Once located in one of the most deprived parts of the city, they have moved to a new stadium complex and have been able to spend to acquire a world class manager and players.  This was made possible by the club’s acquisition by Sheikh Mansour in 2008. Sheikh Mansour is the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, he is also Minister of Presidential Affairs in the UAE and a member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family. He is the chairman of the International Petroleum Investment Company and also has a stake in Virgin Galactic.

City claim ‘we’re using the ‘football effect’ to promote health, education and inclusion, to improve the lives of young people in Manchester and all over the world. ’ Using football as a magnet to engage young people, the Club’s Foundation, City in the Community (CITC) delivers a range of award-winning programs, focusing on three main areas: Health, Education, and Inclusion.

Among the ‘inclusion’ activities are holiday soccer schools, girls football and walking football alongside one of the club’s longest-standing initiatives called ‘Kicks’ – which delivers community football for 8-19-year-olds during peak times of anti-social behaviour in the most deprived communities in the city. The aim is to promote increased community integration and combat negative stereotypes.

Projects across the world

Through City Football Group, which owns Manchester City and clubs around the world, projects are being delivered in many different countries such as Brazil, India and South Africa. For example, Ghana is one of Africa’s fastest growing economies and has made significant progress in reducing poverty. However, more than 60 per cent of the population still lack access to safe drinking water, leaving them vulnerable to water-related illness and disease. This can affect children’s education, especially girls, as they often have to walk long distances to collect water, making them late for school, or they are absent due to illness from waterborne diseases.

Football is being used to teach children about life-saving water and sanitation education, keeping them healthy and in school, and will be combined with equipment to provide clean water access to the local community.   Football is used to teach children about drinking healthy water, regular hand washing and staying away from germs.

The city of Manchester

Manchester City is one of two world class clubs in Manchester, the other being Manchester United.  A major football club also helps to raise the profile of a city, facilitating the attraction of overseas investment.

A study completed in 2013 by Cambridge Econometrics looked at the impact of football on Greater Manchester. It was estimated that football supported 5,000 full-time equivalent jobs in Greater Manchester, and that the gross value added associated with footballing activities was £330 million per annum in 2011.

In addition to the positive impact on tourism, and not just on match days, it was noted that “Missions looking to attract trade and investment to the Greater Manchester area use football in a number of ways. The most direct method is co-ordinating mission dates with Manchester United and Manchester City on their summer tours to major overseas markets”.

But then there are losers

In the nineteenth and early twentieth-century Manchester was  known as ‘Cottonpolis’ because of the number of cotton mills, many now used as apartments, offices or for entertainment.   It was surrounded by a ring of cotton towns which in their time were quite prosperous with the mills offering regular employment for women at a time when this was less usual.

However, all these towns have been hit by economic and social challenges and this has been reflected in their football teams. After all, Premier League football in Manchester is just a tram or train ride away. Look at what has happened to these teams elsewhere in Greater Manchester:

• Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League for many years, in League Two in 2020/21
• Oldham Athletic in the Premier League when it was set up in 1992, now in League Two
• Bury, disappeared other than as a ‘phoenix’ non-league club
• Stockport County, at one time in the second tier of the Football League, now a non-league club
• Rochdale, in League One in 2020/21, but fighting relegation
• Wigan Athletic in administration in 2020/21 and fighting relegation from League One

Now think about clubs that started as non-league clubs and are now in the Football League ().   Where do they come from?

• Southern England: AFC Wimbledon; Cambridge United; Cheltenham Town; Crawley Town; Forest Green Rovers; Oxford United; Peterborough United; Stevenage; Wycombe Wanderers (9) (The derby between Cheltenham Town and Forest Green Rovers is known as ‘El Glosico’)
• Midlands: Burton Albion (1)
• North of England: Barrow; Fleetwood Town; Harrogate Town (prosperous northern spa town); Morecambe; Salford City (owned by former Manchester United players) (5)

The stadium and a sense of place

The stadium is where fans go to see home games, but it is also where they go to meet friends, some of whom they only see at football matches.   For example, when Charlton are playing at home I leave Warwickshire at 9.30 am to meet friends in my birthplace of Greenwich for brunch and a pre-match drink.

Charlton fans were exiled from The Valley after it was deemed unsafe to play in and had to share the ground of their South London rivals Crystal Palace.   New owners were prepared to fund a return to the ground, but Greenwich Council was reluctant to give planning permission.  Fans formed a political party called The Valley Party and fought local elections, securing the defeat of the chairman of the planning committee.   They subsequently were given permission to return and now have good relations with the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Coventry City fans left their ground in the city centre for the new Ricoh Arena on the outskirts of the city. They did not own the stadium and a series of court cases followed which saw them playing home matches at Northampton Town’s ground and then in 2020/21 at St. Andrews, the home of Birmingham City.   West Midlands mayor Andy Street helped with negotiations between Coventry City and the owners of the Ricoh, Wasps Rugby Football club.   In March 2021 it was announced that they have signed a ten-year agreement for Coventry City to play at the Ricoh, pending the construction of their new stadium on the Warwick University campus.

Ticket prices

A common complaint made by fans and some journalists is that the demographic base of football is changing. High ticket prices exclude traditional working-class supporters and also cannot be afforded by younger people, leading to an ageing support base.

In 1960, tickets at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge cost 1 per cent of the average weekly wage, which rose to almost 3 per cent by 1990 and in 2010 stood at 10 per cent. Supporters have become more affluent with clubs particularly keen to sell lucrative corporate boxes.

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire has noted: ‘Some clubs deliberately restrict season ticket sales in order to maximise income from football tourists, who pay more for tickets for individual matches and are more likely to spend money on merchandise in the club megastore.’  His research shows that between 1966 and 2018 ticket prices “outstripped inflation … by over 2000 per cent for the cheapest tickets, and a mere 750 per cent for the most expensive.’

Nevertheless, observations of this kind often overlook the fact that society as a whole has become more middle class and affluent with a decline in the number of those in manual occupations.  People have more discretionary income to spend.

Further reading/listening/watching

• Kieran Maguire is one of the leading commentators on football finance. His book The Price of Football (Agenda) is now in its 2^nd edition and is a treasure trove of information.  He tweets daily @PriceofFootball.   His twice weekly podcast is here: ‎‎The Price of Football on Apple Podcasts.
• Another leading tweeter on football finance is @SwissRamble.
• David Conn of The Guardian is one of the leading critical football commentators. Twitter @david_conn.  https://www.theguardian.com See David Conn talking at the Supporters’ Summit here: Clubs in Crisis, Fan Protests & More – Journalist David Conn on Leeds United, Liverpool – YouTube
• The website of the Football Supporters Association is at: https://thefsa.org.uk
• The Financial Times has a new weekly email newsletter called Scoreboard which has some interesting stories. https://subs.ft.com/scoreboard.

Questions for discussion

What does the increase of global football tourism, rising ticket prices and foreign ownership of clubs mean for locally based supporters?   Are they happy to accept the additional funds that are brought in which means that the club can win more matches and trophies?   Or do they think that their links with the club as fans and as an important source of their identity is undermined?

Can you name the club that once played in League One but whose stadium has now been demolished and the club only exists as a non-league phoenix club.   What was the stadium called and what famous product did the club’s owner make?    The first person with correct answers sent to The Orwell Youth Prize will receive a free copy of Wyn Grant’s book Political Football.

Research task: do stadiums matter?

What is particularly challenging about stadiums as economic assets?   Can one rebuild a stadium to secure a better return – for example, have Tottenham Hotspur managed this?   Did Arsenal take a financial hit on their pitch from their move to the Emirates?   Why have new stadiums not boosted the fortunes of Middlesbrough and Sunderland?  Chelsea have long sought a new stadium location as Stamford Bridge is difficult to rebuild – but then how did Brentford manage to build a new stadium on an awkward site?   Is the new stadium for Forest Green Rovers, known as ‘the Vegans’, really environmentally sustainable?

Finally, a prompt for the Writing Prize

What does the future hold for football and place? How can a small non-league football club owned by its fans develop as a club and as part of the local community?   What forms of help are available?   How can it provide training for youngsters and develop a team for women?   Perhaps look at the website of Lewes FC https://www.lewesfc.com as a starting point.  You can also google stories about Lewes in the national press. What are the similarities and differences between ‘grassroots’ football campaigns, and other forms of political action?

Local journalism isn’t all about traffic accidents, who got sent to prison this week or the opening of a supermarket chain. Across the country, local journalists play a key role in informing communities, holding powerful people and institutions to account and highlighting inspiring stories or voices.

YOU CAN ALSO DOWNLOAD A PRINTABLE PDF VERSION OF THIS RESOURCE HERE.

But, along with the journalism sector as a whole, it has suffered from a crisis in financial sustainability, that has led to a downturn in the quality and availability. Highlighting its importance, research has shown that good local journalism helps strengthen democracy and communities.

A positive sign is the growth of local journalism projects that are aimed at restoring trust and reaching diverse communities with a focus on quality journalism and community engagement.

The Bristol Cable is a leading example of this new movement for a better media. Launched from a living room in 2014, the Cable is 100% owned by 2,300 members (and counting) who all have an equal share. We produce award winning local journalism in print and online, free to access for all, and pioneer new methods of reaching and engaging communities, through events, training and democratic participation. Find out more here.

This resource, produced by the Bristol Cable, is designed to get you started with some key concepts and tips for creating local journalism that is exciting, engaging and hard hitting.

Types of stories:

There are different categories for journalistic work, and there is a debate on how best to categorise or label them. But broadly, much of journalism can be broken down into the following:

News reports

These will generally be factual updates on events as they unfold. However, publications will take a different tone or approach depending on their editorial leanings. For example, the Times is generally more conservative while the Guardian is generally more liberal.

Example: The council are now opposed to Bristol Airport expansion despite previous support. But what does that mean for the plans? (Bristol Cable)

Academy plan to change admissions rules could ‘displace’ kids (Liverpool Echo)

Opinion or voice piece

These pieces are written in the first person, meaning the author writes about their own experiences, thoughts and opinions about a specific topic or issue. This is often aimed at making a specific argument in the case of an opinion piece, or telling a personal and powerful story, in the case of a voice piece.

Voice example: Vulnerability, escapism and creativity, my experiences of lockdown as a young Bristolian

Opinion example: ‘We must not let Bristol’s coronavirus recovery be built on shortsighted banks, empty gestures and missed opportunities’

Features journalism

This is a catch all category for more creative and colourful writing, that encompasses interviews, essays, longer pieces with more context and multiple sections.

Example: Meet the Bristol collective putting surplus wealth in the hands of people tackling injustice

Example: Bristol filmmaker Michael Jenkins is ‘wreaking the best kind of havoc on the city’

Investigative journalism

This form of journalism is usually aimed at exposing or revealing something that isn’t already known about and that maybe controversial. This is an area that has legal and ethical risks, and demands special skills and knowledge that should only be undertaken with the support of an experienced journalist.

Example: Finally exposed: How Lopresti ice cream boss kept men in slave-like conditions, tenants and families in squalor. But people spoke out. (This series of stories was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils 2020)

‘Broken people in a broken system, Manchester’s forgotten families’, Jennifer Williams, Manchester Evening News. (This piece by Jennifer Williams, Investigations Editor at Manchester Evening News was part of a series longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils 2020)

For the Orwell Youth Prize, the best approach is an opinion, voice or feature piece where you can touch on big issues in a creative and personalised way.

So how to go about that?

Building a strong story:

Depending on what sort of story or topic you are working on, different aspects will be more or less important.

However, there are some key elements to think about and combine to make a powerful story

Local is global:

We live in a massively interconnected world, where incidents or issues happening across the globe can affect us, directly or indirectly. By using local examples of stories that help shed light on a national or global issue, we can tell stories that may feel unconnected to us in a way that brings it right back to our doorstep and can make people sit up and take notice.

For example, maybe there is a refugee family living on your street who’s experience of their homeland and now living in the UK can help tell the story of conflict, migration and Britain today. Or perhaps, someone you know is spending a lot of time on social media. How does this connect to the power and influence of global mega-corporations like Facebook or TikTok?

Examples: From St Pauls to Syria: Why this young woman and Kurds in Bristol are struggling for justice from afar

Facts + Humans are a powerful combo:

Facts are the building blocks of journalism, and making sure that the facts we publish are accurate is a crucial responsibility of a journalist. However, having a compelling human story that helps illustrates things like data and statistics is a great way to help the general public be interested and engaged.

For example, we know that thousands of people are facing eviction due to problems paying rent as a result of the coronavirus. Can you give any personal experience or speak to a tenant who is in this position?

Connecting on the emotional level really helps to bring statistics to life. Asking yourself the question ‘why should someone care?’ can help you help you not get buried information and keep to what’s important to convey the story.

Examples: ‘Most families find it shameful’ – Finding pride in a community where being gay is taboo

Context, context, context

Arguably a weakness of much of journalism is that it tells us ‘what is happening’, but not ‘why’. By exploring and explaining ‘why’ we can help the reader have a greater understanding of this sometimes bewildering world we live in! One technique is to delve back further into the past to help explain an event or development by looking at the factors or history of the issue.
Obviously it’s important to acknowledge that there’s often different views or opinions on why something is happening. Make sure to be clear when an opinion is being stated (including your own!), rather than an agreed fact.

Examples: Vox Explainers

Dig deeper

One of the first places a journalist will begin research is through a search engine like Google, an amazingly powerful tool. However, often the top results are news articles. Try digging a bit deeper by researching the sources, people and information cited in the news to get some more detail and a better feel for the topic. It can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming because of how much information is out there, but try to organise your notes in a document, and save links you want to follow up later on. It’s all part of getting immersed in a topic!

Examples: ‘Bristol Water is trying to hike your bills and ‘tip the scales in investors’ favour’

And finally, it’s not all doom and gloom

There’s an old saying in journalism that “if it bleeds, it leads”, meaning that news organisations put the grimmest stories front and centre. No doubt, it’s necessary to highlight the bad and the ugly around us, but this can often lead to sensationalist headlines designed to anger and shock people. However, there is growing evidence that a constant barrage of negative news is prompting people to switch off and disengage with what’s happening all together. As a response there is an emerging trend of ‘solutions journalism’ that explores and highlights campaigns, technological breakthroughs, inspiring community projects and big ideas that can help us both understand and begin to address the challenges we all face.

Examples: Big ideas of what a good ‘new normal’ could look like after coronavirus
See more solutions journalism here and here.

Things to think about:

Privacy, people’s stories and the ‘right to reply’

Journalists have the right to ask questions and approach people to speak to them. However, individuals, particularly in private situations or regarding sensitive matters, also have the right to decline to speak. It’s important to respect people’s privacy and ask for consent to interview them, for example.

A journalist should be independent of people they interview. But at the same time, if you are telling other people’s intimate stories, check in with them about what elements you are going to focus on and seek their feedback. Remember that you are the author, but also that you should be sensitive to their concerns.

Different rules apply if you are making a factual allegation against someone or a company, for example. You must give them the opportunity to respond to the allegations, in what is known as a ‘right of reply’. However for the purposes of the Orwell Youth Prize you should steer clear of stories that may raise these complicated editorial and legal issues without the advice of an experienced journalist.

Fake news:

As the saying goes: “A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots.” While not all fake or inaccurate news is spread maliciously, it can be hard to spot and may be shared in your social circles. A key skill of a journalist is to question things, so if you see something online or IRL, you can do your own research to work out if it’s accurate.

Some resources for fact checking and fake news:

• Full Fact
• BBC Help Your Students Spot False News

Headlines:

‘You’ll never guess what this chimpanzee does next?!” is a classic example of a clickbait headline. Though the chimpanzee probably does something amazing, headlines should aim to give the reader an idea of what they are looking at, while at the same time enticing them to read your piece. It can be a tricky balance, is a question of style and is an art in itself. You can test out different versions with people you know. What would make them click on the link or read the story?

• Tips for headlines

Getting started:

Now you have a better understanding about concepts and top tips for journalism, you’re ready to get started. Think about the following questions as a checklist:

• What is the big issue or topic that I’m thinking about?
• What original or interesting perspective or ‘angle’ can I give?
• What information do I need to gather or people do I need to speak to?
• What sort of story-type will I go for?
• What is the deadline and word count?

Glossary:

Explanations of some of the trickier terms within this resource:

Financial sustainability: The ability to be financially stable and continue to cover costs and invest in the organisation

Democracy: There are different types of democracies and the systems can be complex and some are more democratic than others. All involve some form of right to elect governments and other officials for all citizens, as well protections such as a fair and independent legal system, a free press and other rights such as joining a trade union and freedom of expression.

Media co-operative: A media organisation owned democratically and equally by many individuals, rather than single owners or corporate investors

Why should I pick reporting/journalism as the genre for my Orwell Youth Prize entry?

The Orwell Youth Prize is interested in your viewpoint on what is happening in your area. How do things happening around you relate to national and global problems? What can your perspective or the perspective of those you know add to the issue? We want to encourage you to try it out,

Good reporting requires research, rigour and clarity. It may be outside your writing comfort zone, but when done well it can have a big impact. One of our 2020 winners Jessica Tunks is a great example of this. Following her win, Jessica’s piece ‘Knifepoint’ has been republished in VICE and on the Scottish Violence Reduction unit website. The piece also provoked comment from her local MP Stella Creasy:

“In 1984 Orwell wrote ‘They can’t get inside you if you can feel that staying human is worthwhile, even when it can’t have any result whatever, you’ve beaten them’. This piece embodies that spirit; it holds a mirror to our community and speaks fearlessly and clearly about how pathways for young people like Ali become cut off, as society fails to value their future and our shared responsibility in that process. To write with such passion about knife crime and its impact is to be a voice that makes a difference; someone who isn’t beaten by injustice but is using their platform to call for us all to address it. In doing so, ‘Knifepoint’ embodies the relationship Orwell described so powerfully between independence of mind and changing the world.” Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow.

Want to find out more about getting into journalism?

https://presspad.co.uk/ 
https://www.journoresources.org.uk/