BRAVO et félicitations to Mervin George!

The 12-year-old displayed a certain “je ne sais quoi” in outperforming more than 50,000 of his peers to win the national foreign language spelling bee.

Mervin, a Year 7 pupil at Colchester Royal Grammar School, correctly spelt 20 words in French in just 60 seconds to win the award at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

He had defeated classmates, the best his school had to offer and the finest young wordsmiths in the east to reach the final, where he was tasked with memorising 200 French words.

Mervin then came out top in two rounds at the finale, where judges gave him a word in English which he had to translate and then spell - complete with the relevant French accents and hyphens.

See Tuesday's Gazette for more