TALES of a space traveller have bagged an 11-year-old a shot at winning a trip to Disneyland in a national writing competition.

Youngster Ohemaa Bonsu, of Manor Preparatory School in Abingdon, is in the running after winning the regional title for the national Young Writer's Award competition.

Ohemaa had to create and pen her very own 500-word story based on this year's theme of 'The Future' set in the year 3017.

The youngster wrote an impressive tale titled 'The Diary of a Space Traveller', which put her in the running for the prize trip to Disneyland Paris.

Ohemaa said: "I was at home when my mum took the telephone call from The Manor to tell me I had won the regional round.

"I couldn’t believe it - I was so shocked I screamed.

"This was the second story I wrote as I wasn’t happy with the first one, I thought it was a bit boring.

"My story is going through to the final and the first prize is a trip to Disneyland Paris for my whole family. We have never been so I’ve got my fingers crossed."

The competition, organised by tuition provider Explore Learning which has a centre in Oxford, is now in its ninth year.

It had entries from more than 10,000 children across the country whose stories were judged by TV presenter and adventurer Steve Backshall.

Robots were the most popular characters and appeared in almost a third of all entries, whilst teleportation, rockets and jets were the most common modes of transport predicted for 3017.

Manor Preparatory School English teacher Anike Chuard, who encouraged the children to enter the competition, said: "The theme of , years in the future was an exciting setting for story writing and we began by discussing what Britain was like 1,000 years ago and thinking about the extraordinary changes that have happened in the world since then.

"Ohemaa, dissatisfied with her first effort, wrote a brilliant diary style piece from the perspective of a space traveller in the 31st Century. It has echoes of A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy despite her never having read this book.

"She really is an exceptional and gifted writer."

The national winner will be crowned on June 19 when the star judge Mr Backshall will surprise them in a school assembly to announce the National Young Writer of the Year award.

They will win a trip to Disneyland Paris and £500 worth of books for their school.