Teenager Edward Hilsum has won the Magic Circle's Young Magicians' Club Stage Magician of the Year competition, designed to encourage stage, platform and cabaret magic.

Edward, 17, is a member of the Young Magicians Club - a youth initiative of the Magic Circle, credited as the world's premier organisation for magicians. Edward, who has been practising magic for six years, wowed the judges with his dove act, during which he manipulates silks, candles and fire to produce live birds.

"I would love to do this professionally," Edward, a year-12 pupil at The Judd School in Tonbridge, Kent, tells People. "I first started doing magic at the age of eight when I got my first magic set. I saw Lance Burton's stuff on television and this got me into using doves."

He has since appeared on The Disney Channel doing balloon modelling. Earlier this year, he performed at the Marvin's Magic live window event at Hamleys of Regent Street and in May he won the Bexleyheath Society of Magicians stage competition. He also got through to the last 120 of this year's Britain's Got Talent show with his dove act.

Asked how he does his tricks, he admits to practising every day at home. He keeps seven doves in the garden, but he isn't giving anything else away. You can view some of Edward's tricks at www.youtube.com and searching using his name.