Alison Fisher wins a top short-story writing award

Author Alison Fisher has worked in an Easter egg factory, in air traffic control centre and as an EastEnders scriptwriter. Now she has turned her attention to creative writing - and successfully.

Ms Fisher, who is in her 50s, has won the Bridport Prize, an international short-story competition. Brighton-based Ms Fisher picked up the honour for The Woodcutter's Wife, a fairytale about a girl, who comes from the sea and has to go and live in a forest.

Aimed at adults, the story received excellent feedback from novelist Zoë Heller, one of the judges. Ms Fisher spent more than 20 years as a television script writer. She tells People: "My work on EastEnders seemed to come to an end and I had been working on this story, so I sent it off. I never expected to win."

Her story has since been published in the Bridport Prize Anthology.