AN 11-YEAR-OLD from Salisbury has scooped top prize in a UK-wide writing competition after impressing the bestselling American author Rick Riordan.

Nathan Burn chose to write the ending of a story by Riordan, famous for the children’s series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, as part of a competition run by The Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge.

The competition called Finish The Story sees children writing endings to short stories started by six top authors.

Choosing to finish A Quest From Apollo, Nathan wrote about how two children battled against a nine-headed, man-eating monster who had been terrorizing commuters on a subway train.

He said: “I really enjoy the Percy Jackson series and as I’m interested in Greek mythology I thought it would be fun to try and write about a Greek monster in Rick Riordan’s style.”

An impressed Riordan praised the youngster saying it was a “wonderfully scary story”.

“I’m not sure I could’ve disposed of a monster any better than Nathan did, and I will definitely think twice before riding the train again,” he said.

Each author chose their favourite ending to the story before a judging panel met to decide on the overall winner.

On Wednesday Nathan was presented with his prize – a laptop - during a special ceremony in Salisbury Library.

The Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge encourages children to read over the summer holidays, via their local libraries.

In Wiltshire around 10,000 children took up the challenge, trying to read at least six books over the holidays.

Chris Williams, portfolio holder for libraries at Wiltshire Council, said: “Congratulations to Nathan on creating an amazing story.

“I hope this will inspire him and many more young people to continue writing. Getting into a good book is so beneficial for literacy skills and the more young people we can encourage to read the better.

“This year was the most successful yet with almost 10,000 young Wiltshire children taking up the Summer Reading Challenge ably assisted by an army of 250 volunteers who listened to them recount their reads. I hope we can increase the numbers again in 2015.”

To read Nathan’s story in full visit summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/news/general/final-finish-the-story-winner