Winners of The Skeptic Essay Competition Announced

Readers will recall that The Skeptic magazine recently invited readers to submit essays on the subject of religious belief and delusion in a competition to honour Mary Evans.

Jon Wainwright receives first prize for his winning essay.

Mary is now, sadly, in a care home suffering from Alzheimers*, but many readers will be aware that the Mary Evans Picture Library in Blackheath, founded by Mary and her husband Hilary in 1964, is the source of many of the illustrations used in The Skeptic. Throughout her productive life, Mary always believed that religion was nothing more than a delusion and it was therefore felt that this essay competition was a suitable tribute to her achievements.

The general level of entries was extremely high, making the judging process very difficult. In light of this high standard, it was decided that we should award not only a first prize and a second prize, as originally planned, but a first prize, two (joint) second prizes, and three runners-up prizes. All of the prize money was generously donated by Hilary Evans. The winning essay will be published in the next issue of The Skeptic and essays of the other prize winners will be published online in the competitions section of The Skeptic's website.

First prize (£400): Jon Wainwright
Joint second prizes (£100 each): James Munroe and Steuart Campbell
Runners-up (£50 each): Anthony Campbell, Michael J. Rush and Donald Rooum

Staff at The Skeptic would like to take this opportunity to express sincere gratitude to all the ever-helpful staff of the Mary Evans Picture Library and to Hilary Evans for his personal generosity in providing the prize money.

*Since publishing the above, Mary Evans has sadly died.