North-London mother-of-two Annabel Levin has won a BBC short-story competition for her tale about a fire-breathing baked bean.

Ms Levin’s story, Dr Sharpneedle Visits, was picked from 2,000 other entries in a competition organised by the BBC’s Reading and Writing initiative (RaW).

“I was at the library with my children, Nikki, six, and Alex, three, and we came across the booklet for the competition,” she tells People. “The booklet presented a selection of different characters, and my girls like the baked-bean one, so I chose to write mine about that.” The story is about Baked Bean, a dragon who has lost his ability to blow fire. He rediscovers his powers when he is about to have an injection at the doctor’s. The prize is 24 cinema tickets.

A former financial-software executive, Ms Levin says she has no real writing experience: “I just dabble for fun with the girls.” It was her children who inspired her to create Kid Do Ku, a children’s sudoku game, which was awarded the Good Toy award 2007 by the National Association of Toy & Leisure Libraries. “I started doing sudoku with my kids and thought it was a shame there wasn’t a children’s version. It brought out my creative side.” She is currently working on a new education board game for children.

Home is in Highgate.