A SCHOOLGIRL put pen to paper to create a prizewinning short story that beat thousands of other entries.

Pandora Dewan, a pupil at Oxford High School, won the Evans Schools Short Story Competition and had her work published as part of yesterday’s World Book Day.

She was one of just 29 talented young writers published out of more than 3,000 entries from schools around the country.

Her 1,370-word story, Fish Story, will be published in an anthology The Escape of Hanna Schmidt and other stories and poems containing the best secondary school entries.

Another anthology, Lord of the Ring Doughnuts and other stories and poems, contains the best primary school entries.

Pandora, 11, said her grandfather’s death last summer inspired her to write the conspiracy story, centred on a piranha.

The former pupil at SS Philip and James Primary School, Jericho, said: “I feel very proud of myself, but if it wasn’t for my teachers and my old primary school teachers I wouldn’t have got there.

“They gave me support and inspired me. They taught me English was a wonderful subject and made me want to write.”

She added: “I wrote a lot of it on the plane to my grand-father’s funeral.

“I think a lot when I’m on a plane and I write stories, so I thought I might as well write this one.”

A series of first lines supplied by leading children’s authors, including poet Roger McGough, were the starting point for the budding writers to create their own short stories and poems.

Pandora, of Beechcroft Road, Summertown, used Philip Reeve’s opener, “It was a Peruvian blue-finned piranha, one of the rarest and most dangerous fish in the world. But what was it doing in my bath?”, as the basis for her tale of magic and treachery.

Her story begins with a boy discovering a piranha in his bath.

As the story unravels the reader learns about his grandfather, the head of wizardry in the “real” world, and a plot to kill him.

Pandora will receive a certificate and a special edition of the anthology in a presentation ceremony.

Her school will receive an additional 100 copies of the anthologies.

Author Stewart Ross, who judged the competition, said: “This year we had more entries than ever and the standard keeps climbing.”

Both anthologies are going on sale for £3.99, with the profits going to World Book Day.