Six year old Hurst resident Benji Janes recently won a national nature writing competition for his age group. Not only a writer, he is proving to be a talented artist as well and his art has featured on Chris Packham’s bird club. “I love everything about nature,” said Benji, “and I love drawing too. My story is about two sparrows that I’ve made friends with in our garden. They’re called Flutter and Flims and I see them every day! Nature is the most interesting and fun thing to learn about, and we have to look after nature and not harm it.”
The Nature on Your Doorstep nature writing competition was organised by Lucy McRobert to encourage children to write about nature. A team of wildlife writers judged the competition, with hundreds of entries from all over the country. As part of his home learning during lockdown, Benji wrote several stories about birds and entered The Story of Flutter and Flims, a story about two sparrows which visit his garden. The winners were announced by Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin on The Self Isolating Bird Club and his prize was amazing pair of binoculars, which he hasn’t been seen without since he opened them! His story will be published in the BBC Wildlife Magazine in the autumn. His proud mum, Nish, commented: “Benji draws all the time and loves to draw out in the countryside - he’s been carrying paper and pens in his backpack since he was three! He loves learning facts about nature and imagining stories, and now that he can write them down himself, he was so keen to tell this story!” Follow Benji’s art on Instagram (@benjaminfallow).
