AN Accrington-born man is sharing success with a childhood pal after winning a prize in one of the UK's top five writing competitions.

Author David Swann beat off the challenge from more than 4,500 people around the world to win a prize - and he credits his success to an East Lancashire upbringing which he shared with top novelist Jeanette Winterson.

David, 40, who was born in Water Street, received the award and £500 for his short story "The Last Days of Johnny Northe" in the Bridport Prize 2003.

The competition for short stories and poetry, launched in 1973, has helped launch new writers and led to further successes.

David has already won another accolade with the smaller Wells Festival of literature this month and will have his story published by Norwich-based publisher Elastic.

Previous winners include Kate Atkinson in 1990 with a short story that became the first chapter of her novel "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" the winner of the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year.

David's story - described as a comedy about nervous breakdown - centres around a young man in a fictitious northern town who tries to make sense of his relatives' lunacy.

The writer, who now lives in Brighton and teaches English at University College Chichester, even received the prize from his childhood friend and neighbour Jeanette Winterson who wrote "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit".

Like many writers, David has had a lot of jobs: reporting for various publications including the Accrington Observer in the 1980s, teaching at Accrington and Rossendale College from 1988 to 1992 and holding the position of writer in residence at Nottingham prison from 1997 to 1998.

In spite of this wealth of experience, it was his East Lancashire upbringing that provided the influence for this story.

He said: "My mum had a job driving a pie van, which didn't work properly and didn't have any brakes.

"We used to ride with her and I remember a dog waiting on the corner every day. I used to get out and give it a pie.

"In the story there is an old woman who also drives a mad pie van which similarly did not have brakes."

But apart from obvious similarities like this, it was the former Moor Head High, in Cromwell Avenue, Accrington, pupil's fondness of Accrington where his parents Geoff, 64, and Jenny, 62, still live.

"I love to come back up north. I wander around the shops listening to people speak. After living in Brighton it is like a tonic."