Her Majesty Queen Camilla Honours the Future of Commonwealth Storytelling: The 2025 Queen’s Essay Competition Winners Crowned
The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition (QCEC), run by the Royal Commonwealth Society since 1883, is the world’s oldest international schools’ writing contest. Open to youth under 18 in Commonwealth countries (plus Hong Kong, Ireland, Zimbabwe). 2025 theme: “Our Commonwealth Journey” (journeys—geographical, historical, personal). Entry deadline: May 23, 2025 (now closed as of Nov 24, 2025). Prizes: Awards, funded London trip. Submit via royalcwsociety.org
Queen Camilla, Vice-Patron of the Royal Commonwealth Society, welcomed the 2025 winners and runners-up of the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition to the majestic St James’s Palace on November 20, 2025, joined by a dazzling array of celebrity guests including Geri Halliwell-Horner, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Gyles Brandreth, Joan Armatrading, Monica Galetti, and Barnaby Thompson. The historic palace played host to a record-breaking celebration: 53,434 young writers from every corner of the Commonwealth had entered the competition on the theme “Our Commonwealth Journey,” a 53% surge from the previous year. Amid the crimson walls and glittering chandeliers, four exceptional teenagers—Senior Winner Kaira Puri (17, India), Junior Winner Vivaan Agarwal (14, India), Senior Runner-Up Pandora Onyedire (17, Nigeria), and Junior Runner-Up Lakshmi Manognya Achanta (14, Singapore)—stood as living proof that the future of storytelling is bright, bold, and brilliantly diverse.
Kaira Puri’s winning senior entry, “When the Gates Open: From Mud to Stone,” painted a searing portrait of educational inequality in India, contrasting gleaming urban classrooms with rural girls whose dreams are buried under poverty and tradition. Vivaan Agarwal’s junior triumph, “Pixels, Poetry and Bridging the Partition Between Us,” imagined two teenagers—one Indian, one Pakistani—reuniting across the scars of 1947 through the magic of online gaming and shared poetry. Pandora Onyedire explored cultural migrations in Nigeria with lyrical power, while Lakshmi Manognya Achanta wove personal growth through Singapore’s multicultural tapestry and the rhythms of Carnatic music. Together, their words turned the theme of “journey” into something alive—geographical, historical, emotional, and defiantly hopeful.
The palace itself became a stage when Joan Armatrading, Monica Galetti, and Barnaby Thompson performed the winning pieces, their voices filling the grand hall with goosebump-inducing drama. Armatrading’s soulful reading of Kaira’s essay drew tears; Galetti’s warm delivery of Vivaan’s gaming odyssey sparked laughter and wonder. Geri Halliwell-Horner, herself once a young dreamer scribbling lyrics, beamed from the front row, while Dame Jacqueline Wilson and Gyles Brandreth swapped delighted whispers about the sheer talent on display. The performances were the evening’s unforgettable heartbeat—proof that when great artists lend their voices to young writers, magic happens.
Queen Camilla moved among the winners like a proud mentor, crouching to eye level, laughing at their jokes, and listening intently to their stories. She told Vivaan his vision of digital reconciliation “filled her with hope for the future,” praised Kaira’s advocacy as “a beacon every girl should see,” and urged them all to “keep that incurable itch for writing.” Gyles Brandreth later recounted how she teased the group, “Promise you’ll remember me when you’re famous!”—a moment of royal warmth that left the teenagers glowing. Geri Halliwell-Horner shared tales of her own teenage notebooks, Dame Jacqueline offered one-to-one writing tips, and Joan Armatrading slipped Vivaan a handwritten note: “Your words already bridge worlds—keep building.
As our Commonwealth continues on its remarkable journey, I am certain that each one of our brilliant finalists has an exciting future ahead of you, using your literary skills to express your concerns and ambitions, to make the unknown accessible and to fill us with hope for the days to come.
As the evening drew to a close beneath the golden glow of St James’s Palace, Queen Camilla’s deep and abiding passion for the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition shone brighter than any chandelier. For years, as Vice-Patron, she has championed this competition as a sacred space where young voices from the farthest corners of the Commonwealth are not just heard but celebrated, lifted, and believed in. The winners and runners-up could scarcely contain their excitement; eyes wide, cheeks flushed, they later confessed they had to pinch themselves to believe they were actually laughing and chatting with Her Majesty. Yet every tremor of nerves melted away under Camilla’s legendary kindness: she greeted each teenager as if they were the only person in the room, asked gentle, curious questions about their homes and dreams, and offered encouragement so warm and genuine that tears threatened more than once. “She made us feel ten feet tall,” Vivaan whispered afterwards, while Kaira clutched the memory of Camilla’s quiet promise—“Keep writing, my dear; the world needs your fire.” In that moment, four young writers didn’t just meet a queen; they met a true believer in their words, and they left the palace carrying her faith in their hearts like the brightest torch for the journeys ahead.
