A DURHAM teenager with a passion for writing is celebrating after winning a prestigious poetry award.

Trinity Robinson, 16, who attends Durham Sixth Form Centre, received a prize at the Poetry Society’s Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award ceremony at London's Royal Festival Hall.

Trinity Robinson, who has been writing since she was a child, has already won a Rotary club poetry competition for her region and got her first publication in Between These Shores Literary and Arts Annual last year.

Inspired by her love for Durham, with its history and old buildings, she has had eight of her original poems published.

Her mother Julie, who joined her in London, said: "She was very honoured to win the prize. It was the first time she had entered the Foyle Young Poets awards.

"She submitted her poem and completely forgot about it. When we got the call saying she had been nominated she was absolutely thrilled.

"It's really nice to have that recognition, occasionally. She she puts herself out there and submits this work which is really personal. Foyles is the big one. It was lovely to meet people form all over the world."

Trinity, who is studying, maths, film and TV and theatre, is working on a novel.

There were 15 winners out of 6,000 young poets that entered this year from across the UK and 76 countries across the world.. Foyle is the largest poetry competition in the world, and aimed at 11-17 year olds.

Phlegethon By Trinity Robinson

When she’s sat in the dark

I light myself like a candle

Burn away the shadows

Til she’s sitting in the sunshine

The only problem with candles

Is that in order to glow

They must burn themselves away

But when she’s sat in the dark

I swear,

It takes everything in me

Not to set the world alight

Just to see her smile