A student from Birkenhead has been shortlisted for a national writing award from the long-running West End musical ‘Wicked’.

Abigail Bregman, a year 8 student at the Birkenhead Park School has reached the final 20 of the country-wide ‘Wicked Young Writer Award’ in the age 11-14 category after standing out to the judges from more than 4,000 applications across the UK.

Competition entrants had to submit a piece of creative writing of no more than 750 words and their submissions were scrutinised by a judging panel led by children’s author Cressida Cowell.

The aim of the competition is to award excellence in writing by using ‘creativity to look at life a little differently’.

Abigail will now head to London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre on June 23 for a special awards ceremony run by Wicked and The Literacy Trust.

Her story ‘An Invisible Friendship’ has been influenced by personal experience to reflect on the theme of coming of age and the changes that take place during the transition to adulthood.

She said: “It’s about a boy who’s grown up with an invisible friend that he made up, but as he moves on through school and goes to college, his friend starts to fade away because he’s forgotten about.

“I used to have invisible friends that I’d talk to at night if I couldn’t sleep.

“I don’t think about them anymore, which I think is part and parcel of growing up, so the idea for the story came from that and I went from there.”

“I have always enjoyed writing from a very early age.

“I feel very proud that I have been selected from such a wide range of young people and I am really excited for my trip to London.”

Winners of the 11-14 category receive a selection of prizes including a £50 book token, £100’s worth of books for their school’s library and a ‘Wicked workshop’ for their school too.

Head of english at The Birkenhead Park School Helen Franklin said: “Abigail is exceptionally gifted at writing; her ideas are interesting and often show a completely different angle on a given task.

“Her written work is a pleasure to mark.

“We are extremely proud of her achievement in such a wide-ranging and prestigious competition.”