QUEEN OF TEEN, The Final Chapter

I was wrong -- it wasn't easy to pick me out of the crowd after all. Some of the potential Queens of Teen had even come all in black, and it was an altogether friendly, sophisticated, jolly affair, not gratuitously sparkly, and with the greater part of the pink action restricted to cupcakes and petit fours, which is exactly where pink should live. So the talented and delightful Cathy Cassidy is now officially Queen of Teen, and a fine queen she is too, despite a few crown-balancing issues. There were one or two tense moments, but Louise Rennison did not, as threatened, stage a punch-up when she didn't win again. Along with the other eight worthy contestants, she accepted the voters' decision with great good cheer.

A lovely afternoon, a triumph for reading, for cupcakes, and for the very articulate and enthusiastic girls who came along to cheer on their favourite writers.

Hail to Queen Cathy (and Prince Kelpie, right). Long may they reign.