A Saffron Walden teenager was able to count her literary stars when her own writing was recognised at a prestigious awards ceremony held by a national newspaper in London.

Ekaterina Rahr-Bohr, 14, spent the evening mingling with some of the most renowned fiction writers in the country at the Guardian children’s fiction prize 2014, where she won the Guardian Young Critics Award for her review of a book shortlisted for the prize.

“At first, I was a little bit star-struck and shy, but as the evening progressed every single author was friendly and encouraging and took the time to talk with me, so that I could fully enjoy the moment,” said the Year Nine Perse School student, who lives on Gold Street.

The teenager reviewed Natasha Farrant’s The Diaries of Bluebell Gadsby: Flora in Love, noting its ‘flowing edginess’ and the ‘sense of a perpetual chaos’ the work left with the reader.

Ekaterina said she could relate to the book, recommending it in particular to teenage girls “who love to fall in and out of love.”

At the ceremony, Ekaterina met Piers Torday who scooped the children’s fiction prize for his novel The Wild Dark, as well as Francesca Simon, author of the ‘Horrid Henry’ series.

The children winners received certificates, book vouchers, and copies of all eight shortlisted novels at the prize-giving.

“I didn’t know what to do with myself when I had finished the book – I can only hope that Natasha Farrant will write another book in the series!”

Is Ekaterina hoping to follow in the footsteps of great book critics?

“It sounds like a really fun job, being able to read all those amazing books and share them with other people,” said the student, who is “keeping her options open” when it comes to her career, and will soon be taking her Grade 8 violin exam.

“I didn’t know what to do with myself when I had finished the book – I can only hope that Natasha Farrant will write another book in the series!”