A YOUNG man from Okehampton is looking forward to a bright future, after winning the national Young Storyteller of the Year competition.

Talented 24-year-old Wilf Merttens (pictured left) won the competition in Birmingham last Saturday, after being headhunted by an arts officer who saw him performing at a workshop and encouraged him to enter.

Wilf, who now lives in Bristol and works as a learning support assistant for children with learning difficulties, said: 'I feel chuffed and I feel like it is going to open up so many doors for me.

'It's not about the winning itself but what I will now go on to do because of it.

'I have been waiting to step up a level in terms of what's next for me and I have the festival season coming up, which is going to be big.

'I have also written a workshop which I am hoping to take to schools. 'They are based on story- telling, performing and how to remember stories.

'I hope to take them to primary and secondary schools and would be interested in someone from Okehampton College and the primary school letting me know if they would be interested in this.'

Co-ordinator of the Young Tongues Youth project, Fiona Collins, said: 'There was a field of 21 competitors. The competition is a great stepping stone to making storytelling a professional career.

'Wilf was head and shoulders above the others, and not just in height.

'He told a traditional Russian story and put a contemporary twist on it.

'He had the audience laughing and really caught up in the story.

'Wilf is quite physical with his movements and was jumping around the stage.

'He really had the audience mesmerised and I think that he is going to be the next big thing.

'Storytelling is a small world but in that world, Wilf is going to be very big.'

As part of the prize for winning the competition, Wilf will get to perform his storytelling talents at the Festival at Edge in Shropshire and a folk festival in Yorkshire.

He also has free membership for the Society of Story Telling and a year's public liability insurance.

The Young Storyteller of the Year competition raises the profile of storytellers nationally, providing a platform for them to path out a career in storytelling.