Felice The reason this stipulation was originally made is that Walker want the winners to be available for publicity purposes in the UK when the book comes out - and they don't want to have to be flying people in from Australia
But we can see that this is annoying to people who live abroad so we've had another think and agreed that if the winners agree to make themselves available in the UK at their own expense for any press calls/publicity shots etc that are necessary, we'd be more than delighted to have their entries, of course.
We're in the process of amending the Ts&Cs but fyi this is the message we've had from Walker Books:
The UK residency thing was stipulated, it turns out, purely to ensure that the winners would be able to make themselves available for promotion and publicity when the book is published. However, we are willing to accept entries from overseas on the condition that you are willing and able to be available in the UK, at your own expense, for promotion and publicity, should your story be selected as one of the winners.
Hope that helps and you feel you can enter.