The winner of the first Museum and Galleries Month Arts Writing Prize run by www.24hourmuseum.org.uk has been announced.

Newly qualified journalist Matt Havercroft scooped the £500 award with his story, ‘The Real Samuel Pepys’, a review of the Pepys London exhibition at the Museum of London.

Matt, (27), is a Communication Studies graduate and has just completed a post-graduate journalism training course at City College, Brighton.

Competition judge Maev Kennedy, Arts and Heritage correspondent for the Guardian, said: “I thought [the article] was lively, entertaining and had very nicely chosen quotes.

“Not only that, it served what must be the prime purpose of a favourable review, to make the reader want to go and see the exhibition.”

The competition attracted 38 stories and reviews from trainee journalists and 24 Hour Museum volunteer writers who attended MGM events and exhibitions during May.

It was open to anyone studying journalism in the UK, anyone recently qualified as a journalist and any of the existing volunteer writers for 24 Hour Museum.

Website editor, Jon Pratty, said: “All in all, the arts writing prize has been a great success for the site. We’ve achieved lots of publicity for the museums and galleries who worked so hard to make MGM 2003 a success, we’ve helped some very keen writers get by-lines on our national publication, and we got lots of great stories!”

Also on the panel of judges were Loyd Grossman, chair of the Trustees of the 24 Hour Museum and Jane Morris, editor of Museums Journal.

Mark McLaughlin and Neil Maclean finished equal second in the contest with their entries, ‘The Same As You?’ and ‘Titanic Sails Again At The Science Museum’ respectively.

Of Mark’s entry Maev said: “This was the most difficult exhibition tackled by the writers. It was unflashy but neatly written, but above all avoiding the patronising tone which is almost endemic in creating, or writing about, exhibitions of disabled artists.”