AN aspiring author has fulfilled his ambition after his first novel was published.

James Erith’s initial attempts ended in failure.

But through perseverance, a bit of tough love and some unexpected inspiration, he has completed the first in a series of the Eden Chronicles.

Mr Erith, 43, had originally hoped to pursue a cricketing career.

But his hopes were thwarted when he dived into a swimming pool in Australia and hit his head on a step, cracking vertebrae in his neck.

He returned home and took up a career in landscape gardening.

However, he had always yearned to write.

He said: “I used to write long letters when I was abroad and I started a couple of novels, which failed spectacularly.

“I think I could not work out what I was trying to write.’’ But then James, of Lamarsh, on the Essex-Suffolk border, had an epiphany.

He said: “I hit my head again and was unconscious.

“When I came to, I found a painful spider bite on my neck, my garden had flooded and my daughter, Florence, whowas then five, was telling me about a story she’d read.

“My head was swimming with the powerful idea that dreams of eureka moments might somehow be given to us, like a gift.’’ It triggered the idea for the Eden Chronicles and James has now just published the first in the series, the Power and the Fury.

James said: “After the first chapters, I asked a writer friend to read it.

“He tore it apart. He just shredded it, but he said this is going to be the best thing ever for you.’’ James took a new approach to the novel.

Now, a year later, the Power and the Fury has been published through James’s publishing company, Jericho Press, and he is half way through the second.

Father-of-three James said he wrote the book for his godchildren – Isabella, Daisy and Archie – and has used their names for the book’s protagonists.

In the novel, the talented, but eccentric, children are unwittingly given special dreams and curious powers, which are the Gifts of Eden.

The dreams are the ancient Prophecy of Eden, a test of mankind and the children must stay alive to avert a global catastrophe.

James said: “I am thrilled to have got somewhere. It is fantastic. I hope the books are really going to take off.’’