AN Evesham freelance journalist was named as top feature writer at the Horticultural Writer of the Year Awards during the industry's showcase event Horticulture in Focus at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

John Sutton, a former senior lecturer at Pershore College who lives at Hampton, collected an engraved Caithness rose bowl and £375 in prize money from NFU president Ben Gill.

Mr Sutton received the Feature Writer of the Year Award for his investigation of new markets for novel pot plants. The report was carried in the Commercial Greenhouse Grower.

Judges said the article clearly and enthusiastically portrayed the popularity of and increasing demand for new varieties of pot plants.

Mr Sutton joined Pershore College in 1972 and retired as a senior lecturer in 1994 to concentrate on writing for the specialised horticultural press and more widely.

He explained: "I have been writing for a very long time. My first payment was for an article I wrote for a gardening magazine when I was still in the sixth form at school."

Mr Sutton is also the author of two books in the past four years targeted at enthusiastic amateur gardeners.

The Richard Burton writer awards are organised by the Guild of Agricultural Journalists and sponsored by the NFU, and Mr Gill said: "They always attract a high number and standard of entries."

Mr Gill said: "Horticulture provides a diverse and dynamic feeding ground for high quality stories, many of which are complex and demand a high level of research and understanding from journalists."