The Ledbury Reporter's Gary Bills is the joint winner of a new international poetry award administered by the Poetry on the Lake Festival in Italy.

The Bill Winter Award is named after a former Eton history master who settled at Lake Orta, where the festival is based.

It is given in the best short poem category and was awarded for the first year that year.

Mr Bills said: "I helped to judge the main competition last year and I read at the festival.

"It's nice to win an award there this year. I'm still waiting to hear what my prize will be."