A gritty tale of a woman's life blighted by a violent father has won Chiseldon writer Joy Wodhams an award.

All of Us Here follows the fate of a girl living in Ireland, who sees her three sisters escape the abuse and sail to England, leaving her behind.

It impressed judges at Writing Magazine who described it as a "thoughtful, wistful, meticulously detailed story" with a devastating finish.

Joy, who has published a dozen novels, said: “I think it’s really important to talk about it as it’s become a bigger issue during lockdown. So many people suffer abuse and unwilling to talk about it because they’re scared.

“You sort of hear about it in conversation but I don’t think anyone understands how dreadful it is unless they’re in that situation, it’s imprisonment or these victims.

“Victims are usually too scared to speak out and that’s why we need to help where we can.”

She was delighted when she discovered the short story had done so well.

“I’ve been writing all my life, in the 90s I wrote a lot of short stories and back then I used to sell them to magazines.

“I just write the odd short story now but I decided to send this one into Writing Magazine and won the July issue.

“I was delighted to have won because it’s not that easy to write a story in 1,500 words. I didn’t expect to win and it’s a different process to writing a novel, I just thought I’d give it a go,” she said.

Growing up Joy would just write for fun but after her husband, Colin, died she decided to take it more seriously.

She told the Adver: “He died three years ago now and writing has taken over my life but it’s been a godsend during this time.

“We were together for 42 years and he eventually died of lung cancer, after that I put all my time into writing stories and painting.”

She also used to teach creative writing in the 90s and now runs the Swindon Fiction Writers writing group.

Her first self-published novel came out in 2013 on Amazon, when she was in her late 60s and she writes for children and teens as well as adults.

All her titles are available on the online shopping site including The Mystery of Craven Manor, The Boy Who Could Fly, and The Girl in the Attic.

Joy said: “I never know where my ideas come from, they just pop into my head and they just seem to work out as I start writing them.

“I love making stories for both children and adults, I just start writing them when they start buzzing around in my head, I’m never short on ideas.”