She was responsible for producing some of the BBC's most interesting programmes. Now Gaby Koppel is making a name for herself as an author.

The former TV producer has won the Christopher Little Literary Agency (CLLA) Award 2010. The competition is open to students in the final term of City University's MA in Creative Writing (novels) course.

Ms Koppel, 53, started the course in 2008 following a long-standing career in television. She has produced Crimewatch and BBC documentary The Experiment, which recreated the conditions of the controversial Stanford Prison Experiment, a study on the psychology of imprisonment.

She picked up the CLLA award for the first three chapters of her book, Reparation. Inspired by her late-mother, it tells the story of a Hungarian émigré's attempt to claim compensation from the Hungarian government for the persecution she endured during the war. Mother-of-three Ms Koppel tells People: "I thought I was the last person likely to win. I'm a newcomer to fiction and the class is full of very talented people with more experience than me. Because I labeled myself 'a dunce' I tried very hard - maybe that was the secret to success."

Ms Koppel, who lives in Stamford Hill, north London, now hopes to publish the book.