By Sharon AsplinTHE winners of the seventh Essex Book Awards have been revealed at a special ceremony.More than 90 entries were received and the four winners were selected from a shortlist of 26, with each one receiving a cheque for £200.

By Sharon Asplin

THE winners of the seventh Essex Book Awards have been revealed at a special ceremony.

More than 90 entries were received and the four winners were selected from a shortlist of 26, with each one receiving a cheque for £200.

The judges were looking for work published between 2000 and 2002 with content relating mostly to Essex or the London boroughs - part of the county historically.

The winners were:

n Best publication by a local or national voluntary group - Steam and the Road to Glory: The Paxman Story by historian Andrew Phillips, from Colchester.

n Best commercially published publication - John Horace Round by W Raymond Powell, formerly from Shenfield.

n Best individually published publication - The Rev Bennet Allen: Chaplain Extraordinary by Herbert Hope Lockwood, from Ilford.

n Best fiction publication - The Stamina of Sheep - Public Poems For Havering, the Thames and Essex by Mario Petrucci, from Enfield.

The awards were organised by Essex County Council in partnership with Friends of Historic Essex.

Bonnie Hart, council cabinet member for lifelong learning and libraries, said: “It is great to see that so many people are inspired by Essex and its great history. I would like to congratulate all the winners.”

Michael Beale, chairman of Friends of Historic Essex, and one of the judges, added: “The quality of writing and high standard of historical research meant that we had to make some difficult judging decisions.”

Among the authors highly commended for their work were: Martin Newell, from Wivenhoe, for Late Autumn Sunlight; Ted Benton, from Saffron Walden, for The Bumblebees of Essex; Deanna Walker, from Colchester, for Basildon Plotlands: The Londoners' Rural Retreat; Denys Harrison, from Maldon, for Heybridge Basin, The Story Of A Waterside Community 1796 - 2002; and James Dobbs, from Colchester, for Knock John Ship.

sharon.asplin@eadt.co.uk