My novel's published at last - 40 years after I started it!

The author spent 47 years working for local newspapersThe author spent 47 years working for local newspapers
The author spent 47 years working for local newspapers
Former Ilkeston Advertiser editor Peter Pheasant has finally seen his first novel published – at the age of 70.

Manfishing is set in the fictional Midlands town of Brexham. It follows the exploits of Simon Fox, an ambitious young reporter on an old-fashioned weekly newspaper at the heart of its community in the dying days of hot-metal production.

It’s a series of stories in one, set in an era of smoky newsrooms, with reports bashed out on typewriters before the age of the internet.

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Anything and everything that’s decent to print makes the pages of the Brexham Bugle, from court cases and council debates to weddings and whippet racing.

The front cover of Peter Pheasant's debut novelThe front cover of Peter Pheasant's debut novel
The front cover of Peter Pheasant's debut novel

As Fox seeks out the next front-page scoop, he meets a cast of colourful characters, including a disabled pensioner who is being terrorised out of his home and an Auschwitz survivor pleading for help to save her sick grandchild.

But he knows nothing of the secret alliance between a corrupt detective and a violent skinhead.

Meanwhile, Fox is grappling with tragedy at home. And when the Bugle’s century of independence ends with a takeover, he is on a collision course with the new owners.

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“It’s not a book you’d read to your kids,” Peter says. “Sex, drugs and violence are recurring themes but there are also flashes of joy and humour.”

His first book, How A Mozzie Burnt My Bum, a collection of humorous newspaper columns, came out two years ago but he says that having a novel published was a lifelong dream.

He began working on Manfishing about 40 years ago and “nibbled” at it many times over the following decades.

“But work and family life were always getting in the way and It was only after I retired four years ago that I sat down and started putting it together in something like its present form, although it’s had several major revisions since and I’d probably be tweaking it until my dying day if JMD Media, a Nottingham-based company, hadn’t offered to publish it.”

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The novel’s striking cover illustration is the work of Peter’s nephew Duncan Schmelich, who grew up in Kimberley and Eastwood.

The author, who lives in Ilkeston, was born in Chilwell, Notts, and went to Churchill Boys’ School, in Kimberley, before attending Eastwood Hall Park Technical Grammar, where he met the man he calls his great mentor, English teacher Alan Harries.

He spent almost half a century working for local newspapers, starting on the Ilkeston Advertiser and retiring as night editor of the Nottingham Post. Along the way, he was assistant editor of the Derby Telegraph and joint launch editor of holdthefrontpage.co.uk, a website for regional journalists. He continues to write a regular column for the Telegraph and the Post.

Manfishing is on sale online from Amazon or JMD Media but a limited number of signed copies are available for £10, including postage, from the author at [email protected].

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