A DENHOLME man hopes to top up his pension with royalties from his growing success as a writer.

Former artist Alan Heselgrave’s first novel has arrived in paperback this month and he plans to publish a second book early in the New Year.

He reckons that by the time he takes retirement from his ‘day job’ as a gas engineer, he will have written four books.

He said: “I am 63 old in April and am looking to my retirement soon. Hopefully the royalties will help me after my working days have finished.

“Writing books is extremely hard and the first one took me 12 months to write and the second around three months. It goes to show it’s never too late to change your life.

Alan has spent most of his life living across Yorkshire, in places such as South Kirby and Doncaster, and he settled in Denholme about 15 years ago. He has worked in a variety of jobs.

More recently he began writing ghost story blogs on the Internet, then decided to write more seriously and produced a full-length fictional work.

He said: “This is called To Catch A Ghost” which has been published on Amazon as an e-book and now out on paperback. The novel has only been out a couple of months and has been very successful on Amazon Kindle. The reviews have been quite good.”

Alan’s second book is non-fiction, and is entitled A Worker’s Life – A Critique and aims to “open the lid” on employment matters and issues.

Alan said: “It is designed for both ends of the age range, from the new starter through to the seasoned worker.

“It gives a heads up for all the working issues. There are also several work-related funny stories to keep it on a more lighter note, but it is very critical of the way workers are treated.”