Many of us are probably guilty of returning library books a little late, but Milton Bisset is in deep trouble for being 20 years late returning a DREAM.

That's the premise of Elizabeth Hopkins' short story which has won her a major award and set her on the path towards her dream of becoming a full-time writer.

Elizabeth, who has a six year-old daughter, beat more than 100 other writers to win the James White Award, which was set up in the memory of an Irish science fiction author and is awarded every year to an unpublished writer.

She was presented with the trophy as part of the Hugo Awards, held at the World Science Fiction Convention in August last year.

The Hugos are considered the Oscars of science fiction and fantasy writing.

As part of her prize, Elizabeth's story A Short History of the Dream Library was published this week in the 204th edition of science fiction magazine Interzone.

She joins the ranks of its published authors which include Terry Pratchett, JG Ballard and Brian Aldiss.

Elizabeth's story is set in Bradford many years after the imaginary Great Thornham Dream Library - which was able to bottle and lend out other people's dreams - has closed down.

Milton Bisset took out the last dream but never returned it. . . and now the powers that be want it back.

Elizabeth, 32, who is married and lives in Clayton, said: "It was amazing to win the award and getting the story published in Interzone is very exciting.

"I enjoy writing fantasy and wanted to do a story set in Bradford, although it is a slightly fictitious Bradford, with an old dream library which is now a hairdressers."

A former pupil of Rhodesway School, Elizabeth has also worked at Armley Prison and is now a full-time mum to Anna. She said: "I fit my writing in around her, when she's at school and in the evenings."

Elizabeth hopes to follow in the footsteps of her favourite fantasy writers, Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien and Narnia creator CS Lewis, and become a fulltime writer.

She said: "I've now had another story accepted by an American publisher for an anthology and I do plan to start writing a full-length novel."

Extracts from A Short History. . .

Extracts from A Short History of the Dream Library: Milton Bisset has had the same dream every night for twenty years. It is not the world's most profound dream, but Milton seems to like it. It mainly consists of a maze, at the centre of which is a square box. Inside the box is another maze, in which is another box, and so on and so forth until Milton wakes up. The trouble is, it isn't actually Milton's dream. It is the property of the Ministry of Unusual Technology and they want it back.

There is a rumour that all the collected dreams of Bradford were taken from the defunct dream library and buried under the new Centenary Square. For this reason, some bright (and cultured) spark has seen fit to write TREAD SOFTLY BECAUSE YOU TREAD ON MY DREAMS in black felt pen just next to the Town Hall steps.