FORMER Barnoldswick journalist and cricketer David Scott has just published his fifth book.

The book, titled Murder on the Herald Express, is a follow-up to a novel he wrote in 2004 called The Standard Bearer, which was based on a fictitious Essex newspaper. The story has moved on six years.

For those who yearn for newsrooms where typewriters rather than computers were the norm and the printing press was in the same building, this book will bring back memories of happy days for the regional newspaper industry.

In David's story, editor Dick Chinnery travels to Cornwall to manage a group of newspapers his Essex company has just bought, where he is soon made aware of simmering tensions among staff on the Broad Bottom Herald Express as he tries to unravel numerous scams.

When a senior policeman, who is helping to organise House of Commons lunches for foreign diplomats, sues the paper, Dick finds himself dealing with MI5.

Then a murderer strikes. Dick and his fellow editor and wife Mary fear they may be the next victims in a newspaper office where nothing is as it seems.

It is now available in Kindle format from Amazon. It will also be available via Amazon in paperback by the end of April, but Craven Herald readers can get a signed copy by contacting David at Highview, Rosehill Rd, Torquay TQ1 1RJ enclosing a cheque for £9 which includes postage.

David is a former pupil of Rainhall Road Junior School in Barnoldswick and Ermysted’s Skipton Grammar School.

He was mayor of Maldon, Essex, in 1979/80 and is a former editor of several weekly and daily newspapers.

He was managing director of a large newspaper company in Birmingham before setting up his own media and journalism training company in 1988.

Both of David's now deceased parents were well known in Barnoldswick. Ernest Scott worked for Rolls Royce for more than 30 years. David played cricket for both Barnoldswick and Thornton.