A competition to write the beginnings of a 'crossover' novel - one which appeals to both adults and children - has just been launched in the North-East. Novelist Wendy Robertson explains what the judges will be looking for.

SOME years ago, after a brief foray into young children's fiction, I wrote a novel about Lizza, who was 15. After escaping from the North-East to work Lizza comes home only to be "locked in" by the travel restrictions during the nine days of the 1926 national strike.

Not knowing any other writers, and not being locked into networks so familiar to present day fledgling writers, I merrily sent Lizza off to unknown names at two very major publishers.

The first publisher loved it but suggested changes. In my new-writer-pride I considered this unthinkable, like cutting off my baby Debora's arm, so I sent it off to the other publisher. Linda Jennings of Hodder & Stoughton - later my much respected editor - wrote and said how much she enjoyed it. They were happy to publish it, virtually unchanged, except for the removal of a family called Onions who were cluttering up the plot.

I was so happy, I nearly fell out of bed. (Bryan had just brought up the post with a cup of tea). Any new writer will tell you how orgasmic this moment is. Here are total strangers - totals strangers in the chilly literary regions of London, no less - who think your work good enough to publish! No greater validation for a new writer. I write, therefore I am.

Then I read on. "This will be wonderful for our young adult list." Young adult? A children's novel? But I had written a novel, a universal story that could be read and relished by anyone, whatever their age.

Still good news, though. I proceeded to embrace Linda and Hodder & Stoughton as my gateway to serious writing and they subsequently published two more "young adult" novels.

All these events were 18 years and 14 novels ago, but all three of these children's novels are still borrowed in British Libraries. Lizza is still read by adults and they are the subjects of desultory second hand sales on Amazon. The Real Life of Studs McGuire is on some Australian school's required reading list, another is still read in Swiss schools. Probably the glue-sniffing scenes are a bit of a pull.

After these novels I wanted to write in the same style, but increase my scope and scale. The only way to do this in those days was to move into adult fiction. Fourteen novels on, I do not regret this. The label gracing my novels is now "saga" or "historical", rather than "young adult", but they seem to be enjoyed by many readers out there and as a writer, I relish their pleasure.

A few weeks ago I was at Bishop Auckland Town Hall brooding on the fact that these days I could have increased my scope and scale within the field of children's fiction by writing "crossover novels". Over lunch with the indefatigable Gillian Wales, we were brainstorming our Annual Creative Writing Competition. In its fifth year now, this has been very successful, bringing entries from all over Britain and much further afield. Our first winner, Jonathan Tulloch, went on to write Season Ticket, which was later filmed as Purely Belter.

In recent years our competition has focused on the novel rather than short prose, but this year we were looking for a new, inspiring angle.

Our thoughts turned to our own David Almond, who was born in Newcastle and now lives in Northumberland. A patron of our competition, his book Skellig raised controversy when, among other prizes, it won the Whitbread prize for children's fiction in 1998. It was good enough to win the main overall prize but it didn't, because children's fiction was dealt with separately.

David's remarkable literary novels for children continue to win adult acclamation. The latest is The Fire Eaters, set in Newcastle, a deeply moving, funny, perceptive, wonderfully written novel. I have to declare this is favourite of all the novels mentioned here.

His work reminds me of another personal favourite, Alan Garner, whose 1970s novels - particularly the lyrical The Owl Service, and the challenging Red Shift - also crossed over, almost unseen, between young reader's and adult reader's worlds.

Of course, here in the North-East we have Anne Fine, who lives in Barnard Castle in Teesdale. A former Children's Laureate and author of Mrs Doubtfire, her open-eyed knowledge of a child's world is reflected in wry, accessible novels aimed at pre-teenage and teenage readers, which are always a joy to read.

And now this year the welling chorus of adult acclaim for fine children's fiction has culminated in writer Mark Haddon winning both the children's and the overall Whitbread Prize with his novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. This intriguing novel continues to top the children's and the adult best-seller lists and is sold in both adult and child-friendly formats.

Haddon, a fine children's writer for many years, has used that same closely-observed, child-aware focus in this novel of a boy whose literal take on the world throws into counterpoint the complex world we take for granted. There is much for a grown-up to learn here.

This use of differing adult and child formats has happened already of course, not least with JK Rowling's Harry Potter books. In my view their massive success has been as much to do with adults' attraction to the novels as light, escapist, if rather wordy reads, as with a child's natural delight in their fantasy and invention.

Without doubt Rowling's enormous financial success has led other publishers to look for, and promote, children's writers as a good new investment. Therefore there are more of these novels, to respond to this growing market.

One of these writers is Philip Pullman, whose novels are read by children for their playful, creative fantasy and racing quest-driven narrative. The same children, cued by adults and teachers, may even appreciate the spiritual and political universal truths buried in the children's quest. These novels are also relished by adults who love to escape into an alternative, simpler world where Good overcomes Evil and the light consumes the dark. Until next time, of course.

So why, Gillian and I pondered, this upsurge of novels that genuinely cross over between the child and adult appreciation? As is my wont, I told her a tale of my very clever grandson. I once asked him why he still enjoyed watching Tom and Jerry when he could watch The Matrix with informed appreciation. He looked at me with those big blue eyes and said: "It's a rest, Wendy. It's a really nice rest."

Novels of the best crossover writers, (Almond, Garner, Haddon, Fine), are beautifully conceived and luminously written, unclogged by the look-at-me-I'm-clever metaphor, and unfogged by the pretentious, implosive introspection present in some adult literary fiction.

At the next level, (Pullman, Rowling), the novels spin around a driving, quest-laden narrative, intriguing invention, and again this notion of the battle between good and evil. At its best, this battle is explored with some subtlety and some recognition of ambiguity and moral dilemma.

Even at their most populist - writers such as Anthony Horowitz, my grandson's favourite - the novels offer escape into the rites of passage of childhood and early adulthood where the child, in the end, survives dastardly enemies and mostly triumphs. They appeal to the child in ourselves.

Gillian and I decided that such novels are indeed "a very nice rest" from the dilemmas of whether we should or shouldn't have invaded Iraq, whether we should or shouldn't participate in a European constitution, just how we deal with paedophilia on the Internet, or how our best friend is going to face life after redundancy.

So, after a long lunch hammering out these views on "the crossover phenomenon" at Bishop Auckland Town Hall, Gillian and I finally decided that The Crossover Novel should be the theme of our 2004 Creative Writing Competition.

Then we had a great stroke of luck. Writer Pat Barker, the competition's patron, put us in touch with Clare Alexander, Mark Haddon's agent. Fantastic! Clare has said she will read and comment on the six finalists and may even manage to get up here for the presentation lunch.

You never know, Gillian and I may just be midwives to the next David Almond, the next Anne Fine, the next Mark Haddon. Not an impossible dream.

Watch this space.

l Wendy Robertson's novel Honesty's Daughter is out in paperback in May. You can win a copy on tomorrow's Books page. Her new novel, A Woman Scorned, based on the notorious Mary Ann Cotton case, is out in hardback in September.

HOW TO ENTER

THE Crossover Competition asks for a short outline and the first 1,000 words of the novel. The prizes are £500, £200, and £50 book token. The best six will be read by agent Clare Alexander and writer David Almond.

For details and entry form for the competition contact Gillian Wales,

Bishop Auckland Town Hall, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham (01388 602610). The closing date is October 1.