A former north Derbyshire shop-keeper, who had to shelve his love of writing to "earn a crust", has had his first novel published at the age of 80.
Jim Haywood, who ran two gift stores in Creswell with wife Audrey for 20 years, penned Ten Days in June after retiring and is now enjoying seeing his book on sale.
He said: "I've always loved writing but I was too busy earning a crust to write novels. Even when I was working I was thinking of plots and when I retired I used to go off and do my writing."
The 240-page novel, penned under the pseudonym James Palmer, follows a Yorkshire mining family for ten days when eldest lad Jack returns on leave from the war effort in Dunkirk.
My Haywood, a widower, said: "It's a family saga, the war is just background. I didn't know who my mother and father were so I never had a family. The one I wrote about filled that void – It's the family I would have liked to have been part of and never was."
SequelThe pensioner, who has three children and six grandchildren, is planning a sequel to Ten Days in June after he has finished his next novel, which is set in Victorian times.
My Haywood started his literary career at the age of eight with an essay that was printed in a special school book and later had six short stories published.
But he put his pen and paper away while running Haywood's, on Elmton Road, Creswell, with wife Audrey, and the pair later moved to Cornwall where he worked as a bricklayer and then a lecturer. Mrs Haywood died of cancer in 2003.
Ten Days in June is published by Pegasus Elliot McKenzie and is available from Waterstones and Amazon.
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