Teacher wins prize for prose work

Mary Annes Payne's work portrayed a dysfunctional family

The winner of the National Eisteddfod's prose medal portrayed the most dysfunctional family ever in Welsh language literature, the judges said.

Mary Annes Payne won the prize for writing a work of prose with fewer than 40,000 words on the theme of plentyndod (childhood).

A mother-of-two from Dwyran Anglesey, she has published one novel, and came close to winning the prize in 2002.

Meanwhile, Wednesday's attendance hit 23,092 - 2,351 up from last year.

The numbers reveal the highest attendance levels for the eisteddfod on a Wednesday in the last four years.

On Monday, attendance figures at the site in Mold, Flintshire, of 18,608 people were slightly lower than the 20,123 people who visited on the first Monday in Swansea last year.

Ms Payne - who has taught in Montgomeryshire and Anglesey - has also worked in Scotland as a language tutor for migrants from Vietnam.

She follows Carmarthen teacher Tudur Dylan Jones, who scooped the crown at the eisteddfod on Tuesday.

Mountain to climb

Mr Jones, from Ysgol Gyfun y Strade in Llanelli, won the prize for his work on the theme of peaks (Copaon).

Judges said his work was short, fresh and modern.

Mr Jones said parts of his poems were metaphorical, in that everybody had a mountain to climb.