Budding poets took centre stage to showcase their writing skills in the Barnet Poetry Competition.

Barnet Borough Arts Council hosted the event at The Bull Theatre in High Street, Barnet, where the winners of the contest read their poems to a captivated audience.

In joint first place was Tilly Snowball for her poem A Snakesperian Sonnet and Rachel Songhelm, who wrote My Blue Night Wonder.

In joint second and third place were nine-year-old twin sisters Talia and Leila Issacharoff, who attend All Saints Primary School in Whetstone.

Talia was awarded a certificate and £10 for her poem called Sister Blister.

She said: “I decided I wanted to write about me and my sister Leila. We have a special handshake called Sister Blister so I wrote my poem about that.

“It made me feel really happy to come second because I worked really hard on it.”

Leila wrote her winning poem based on one of her favourite books, The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr.

She said: “I really like the book and I read it all the time so I wanted to write my poem about the tiger coming to tea.

“When I had to perform my poem I was a bit nervous and I felt shy when I saw all the people but once I started reading I really enjoyed it.”

The sisters were awarded a total of £15 which they plan to donate to Children in Need and an animal charity.