A TEENAGER has become the first British-based winner of the world’s oldest youth writing competition in 25 years.

Lars Gladhaug, who was born in Norway but now studies at Oxford’s St Edward’s School, beat 50,000 entrants from 54 countries to win the Commonwealth Essay Competition.

The 18-year-old won the Senior Prize for a 1,700-word short story about a group of children building a hot air balloon, and now says he has ambitions to be a professional writer.

The judges described his work as “lyrical, poetic, vivid and alive with haunting images and subtle observation”.

They added: “Lars has a depth of seeing which utterly engages the reader’s attention from the opening words to the final sentence.”

Lars, who was writing in his second language, said: “I have entered the competition three times, but this is the first time I have had any success.

“I am very pleased and very proud.

“I have always felt it is a very prestigious competition, and it was very nice that I finally managed to win after three years of trying.”

Lars started writing fiction when he began school, but said he spent weeks refining each piece.

But few of his stories are ever finished to his satisfaction, he said.

He said: “It took me almost a month to write, but I spent a lot longer thinking about it first.

“It is completely fictional, but my short story is based on something my father did when he was young and growing up in Norway.

“Like the characters in my story, he and a group of friends built a large hot air balloon and launched it in mid-winter.”

He added: “I wanted to convey the sense of childhood experimentation and discovery. When children are young, they do not think about what they cannot do but what they can do.

“I did not set it in a particular place, but it reads as if it is set in a Nordic location.”

The competition, which dates from 1883 and is run by the Royal Commonwealth Society, is open to young writers from any Commonwealth state.

Past winners include writer Elspeth Huxley and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

As well as winning £250, Lars has been able to spend the week with other winners from around the world, visiting the High Commissions of Commonwealth countries, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Oxford University Press, and the BBC.

Last Tuesday author William Fiennes, whose first book The Snow Geese won a string of prizes in 2002, visited St Edward’s School to run a creative writing workshop for the winners.

Lars, whose favourite authors are Roald Dahl and Evelyn Waugh, said he was writing more short stories and one day wanted to write a novel.