Ref. 14825/1BEST-SELLING author Dick King-Smith was besieged by an army of fans when he visited Westbury Junior School on Thursday.

The 81-year-old children's writer read extracts from some of his work and answered questions about his career as he helped pupils celebrate World Book Day.

His work did not end there, however, as he was called upon to judge which children had come as the best-dressed book characters. One pupil from each year group ended up scooping a prize with Harry Potter, a fairy princess and Legolas from Lord Of The Rings proving the winning costumes.

Staff also joined in the fun, with headteacher Richard Hatt dressing up as Farmer Hoggett from Babe and Lydia Lewis netting a prize for her Snow White costume.

Mr King-Smith, whose children's classics include The Sheep-Pig, which became the film Babe and The Hodgeheg, then sat down to a mammoth book signing to round off his day.

Headteacher Richard Hatt said: "The main thing he came here for was that we wanted the children to be enthused about books.

"He started the book signing at 3.05pm and didn't finish until 4.15pm so he must've seen about 300 parents and children. He was even signing books that people had brought in."