A 12-YEAR-old writer, winner of this year’s Betjeman Poetry Prize, has been compared with Emily Bronte.

Ide Crawford’s prize-winning poem was inspired by similar moorland to that which Emily used as the atmospheric setting for her own writing. She was this month named the winner of the 12th annual competition, winning £500 and a trip to Paris.

But for Ide, who herself roams the dramatic Pennine landscape near her Macclesfield home, the best part was a comparison with her literary hero.

Scottish Laureate Jackie Kay – a regular collaborator with the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth – said Ide’s poem put her and the other judge, acclaimed poet Zaffar Kunial from Hebden Bridge, in mind of a young Emily Bronte.

The celebrity-attended award ceremony was held at St Pancras station beneath the famous statue of poet Sir John Betjeman. The young poet, who like Emily is home-educated alongside her three siblings, gave a ’spine tingling’ reading of her poem.

She will write three further poems throughout the coming year in her new role as ‘St Pancras Laureate’.

Last year’s winner, Amineh Abou Kerech, congratulated Ide on her achievement.

Ide said: “Of course I’m not taking the comparison with Emily too seriously - she is a shark and I am a minnow - but I do feel an affinity. Like Emily I draw inspiration from nature and from imaginative worlds built with my brother. Nothing the judges said could have thrilled me more.”