We are very excited to launch the BattleBox book competition.

To coincide with the launch of our new website, we are very excited to launch the BattleBox book competition to help children develop their creative writing skills. To enter the competition, children under the age of 14 need to send us a story about their favourite adventure (real life or imaginary). If they are feeling creative, they can even add illustrations or photos to make the story come to life.  Our favourite story will be printed and bound with one of their illustration or photos on the cover and the winner will receive their very own copy of their book. The winning author will also receive a free BattleBox kit from our ‘Great British’ range.

When I was a child I had so much fun sitting down with a notepad and writing adventure stories and funny poems. In today’s age of computer games and the internet, it would be such a shame to miss out on these simple pleasures, so we wanted to inspire children to put pen to paper and give story writing a try.

I know how creative children can be from watching my own son, Edward, play with his BattleBox kit, and also from hearing feedback from our customers. From pretending to be a soldier under attack to an explorer hunting for buried treasure, I’m constantly intrigued by how imaginative children are.

I hope this competition will spark the interest of children and excite them – whether they have used a BattleBox kit previously or not. This can be a fun activity to share with your child, and you will find out just how creative they can be - you never know, they could have what it takes to become an author.

There are just a few terms and conditions listed below:

• Entrants must be under 14 years of age
• The stories must be a minimum of 500 words (a maximum of 2000).
• The story must be supplied either electronically (in an email or Word document) or if you prefer, by post.
• Any accompanying pictures can be submitted electronically (as a PDF or JPEG) or by post.
• We must receive all entries by 1st November 2012.
• We will feature a selection of our favourite entries on the BattleBox website for everyone to enjoy.
• You do not have to purchase a BattleBox kit to enter (although this may help to provide some inspiration).

We will choose our favourite adventure story in December 2012. The winning book will be published, and the author will receive one of our kits – just in time for Christmas. They will be able to choose from any of our essential or ultimate kits, apart from The Great British Camping Kit or the Warriors at War Kit.

To enter, simply email the story or picture to info@battleboxcompany.co.uk along with the name and age of the author/artist. Alternatively send your entries to BattleBox, Bowcliffe Hall, Bramham, Wetherby, LS23 6LP.

I can’t wait to see all of the entries. Good luck!

Emma de Vere Hunt