Littleborough author Richard is blown over by the success of his first book

A book written and published by Littleborough author Richard Clarke reached number 10 in the Amazon charts for short stories for young adults.

Richard's children's book, entitled 'Calm Pond', is aimed at 5 to 9-year-olds and is a book of nine short stories about a group of animals that live in Blackstone Edge, his home.

The stories cover many topics to help children understand life issues, such as equality, resilience, honesty, change, strengths and weaknesses, anxiety, differences, empathy, bereavement and mental health.

The stories can be read in primary schools as well as at home.

Richard, a trained PE teacher who has spent nearly 30 years in the education sector, with the majority of his experience as Head of Pastoral at the Ryburn secondary school near Halifax, is understandably extremely proud of his book - and stunned.

It's been his first foray into the life of becoming a published author.

He said: "I had thought about writing and writing a book ever since I was a child when my grandmother told me I should be an author.

"I've always been a teacher, though, so this attempt at writing a book was a complete stab in the dark initially.

"To say I'm shocked at its success is a bit of an understatement, though.

"When I first looked at the Amazon list I think 'Calm Pond' was listed at number 357 in the chart. When I looked the next time it was number 10!

"It felt like I was in Wham! or something - my book was listed just below Enid Blyton and just above Roald Dahl in terms of sales - just for that week anyway.

"It's quite a few weeks yet before I find out exactly how many books I've sold, but I'm not necessarily too bothered about that right now.

"I'm just pleased with how it's turned out and how it looks, and the response I've had from people - adults and children - has been brilliant."

Buoyed by the success of his first publication, Richard has revealed that he is already planning a follow-up children's book, which will hopefully also be published in the not-too-distant future.

You can purchase a copy of 'Calm Pond' by Richard Clarke via Amazon.