TWO THOUSAND ENTRIES! I must admit, that took me by surprise. I'd expected a few hundred entries, not a couple of thousand. But what a testament to the state of children's books in this country that so many people are interested in writing for children. I truly believe that the children's books published in the UK are among the finest in the world and reading the five shortlisted stories merely confirmed that.

There's something extra special about receiving a brand-new book by an unknown author. That's part of the reason I found the judging process for this competition so exciting. It was a literary voyage into the unknown.

It was interesting to learn that the initial readers of the 2,000 submitted books found it easy to tell the stories that had been written with passion and commitment by those genuinely interested in writing for children as opposed to those who thought that writing for children was an easy way into publishing and a matter only of using simplified vocabulary. Such stories were quickly and quite rightly bounced. Don't even get me started on those who write children's books because it's “fashionable” and for no other reason.

At the announcement ceremony, I spoke to a couple of the initial readers of the manuscripts about the types of stories they'd had to read and their overall quality. Unsurprisingly a high proportion of the stories were fantasies. So any fantasy that made it through to the long list of 25 books and then onto the shortlist of five had to stand at least head, shoulders and belly button above the rest in terms of originality and quality.

One of the things that struck me about each of the five shortlisted books was the sheer diversity of subject matter and writing style. The final five stories included an atmospheric medieval fantasy (The Crowfield Feather by Pat Walsh), a humorous science-fiction story (Aliens FC by Sam Morrison and Danny Stack), a gritty contemporary drama about a girl trying to find her father (Knowing Leila by Frances Field), a poignant story about family secrets (The Secret Life of Jemma Jones by Ann Marie Conway) and a riveting futuristic fantasy (Reavers by Emily Diamand).

None of the books felt like clones of stories I'd already read 101 times before, thank goodness. Each book had a life and freshness that made me want to read on. They were a joy to read and they all had that essential, “what's going to happen next?” quality. Some books were perhaps more polished than others, but they were all gems and definitely deserved their place in the final five. Each of the finalists should feel justifiably proud of their achievement.

We judges looked at each book in turn and some of the discussions were quite heated, but amicably so. What qualities should the winning book possess? For me the answer was fun, excitement, a unique style and originality. By fun I don't mean the book had to be funny, but it definitely had to be entertaining, what I term “a superglue book” - a book impossible to put down. So we discussed the positives and negatives of each book; which plot elements worked particularly well, which elements were maybe less convincing (if any), the story structure of each book, pace, tone, setting, characters and characterisation, protagonists and antagonists, dialogue and theme. By the time we'd discussed all five shortlisted books, two clear favourites emerged. After more discussion, we had an outright winner.

The winning book, Reavers by Emily Diamand, possesses all the qualities I look for in a novel and then some. (And what a dream name for a writer. I'm jealous!). Reavers is an amazing, accomplished story and I feel privileged to have been a part of bringing this story to a wider audience.

Read an interview with Emily Diamand and an exclusive extract from Reavers here .

The call for entries for the second Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition will be announced later this year in Books. Until then, keep an eye on timesonline.co.uk/childrensauthor

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