Francesca Simon gets sent to The Tower of London! (All in the name of BBC 500 Words)

Francesca joined the 50 finalists of the BBC 500 Words competition at a brilliant star-studded event at the Tower of London. Francesca has judged the competition four times and says ‘I love being involved with 500 Words, I love reading the stories, and I love supporting 130,000 young writers!’

The six winning stories were read aloud by big name actors and comedians David Walliams, Jenny Agutter, David Suchet, Sir Derek Jacobi and Eve McKeon and John Bishop.

You can watch clips of all the action at The Tower here and find out more about the winning stories.

HRH the Duchess of Cornwall with fellow judges and finalists in the moat at the Tower of London

Here’s Francesca with the other judges, left to right:
Chris Evans, Malorie Blackman, Frank Cottrell Boyce, HRH Duchess of Cornwall, Francesca, Charlie Higson

Fabulous Francesca Facts

"Families are great sources of comedy because they are about people trapped together. Only the parents chose to be there and the rest of you are stuck with these people that you might not necessarily like"

"Nobody feels emotions like children and with Henry, the war is constant and total. Anyone who has lived in a family has these shared experiences - the car journey from hell, nits or vomiting"

"I’ve never met a child who doesn’t love hearing stories. It’s a good way of introducing them to books and it’s a great way of getting them to understand stories that they might not be able to read themselves"

"We all love stories, it all helps making sense of the world"

"Horrid Henry speaks to the impish, rebellious child in all of us"

"My first book was called Papa Forgot and was published in 1993"

"I’ve written over fifty books"

"My birthday is 23rd February"

"I’m a bit scared of the dark"

"My hobbies are reading, cooking and going to the theatre"

"My favourite author is Anthony Trollope"

"My most disliked food is beetroot"

"My favourite colour is aquamarine"

"My favourite food is scallops"