AUTHORS can come from the strangest of places.

If you had told Colin Johns he would have a book out within a few years of retiring he probably would have laughed at you.

And that's because up until the day his daughter had suggested the idea to him he hadn't written a creative line, let alone a novel.

He says: "I had never done anything like it before but after they had sowed the seed in my mind I just sat down and the story formed in my mind.

"They say write about what you know and I thought about that for a while, what I have seen in my 60 odd years, and I arrived at a loose concept of what the novel might be.

"In the end the book became a bit of a mish-mash of different characters and different events all pulled together but I was very pleased with the way it turned out."

Grace is set in 1962 where Tony Brown, a restless 18 year old, has plans to try his hand at surfing on Devon’s west coast. Leaving Essex behind, he meets Mary who is also travelling to Devon. Although she is more than twice his age, and against her better judgement love blossoms.

But their short, unconventional, whirlwind affair during the summer of that year ends in disaster with devastating consequences.

Years later, Tony travels back to Devon and to Mary, who decides to reveal a secret before she dies.

The book came out last year under the pen name Samuel J Lumley.

"I was doing a bit of research into my family tree," he reveals, "and discovered my grandfather, Samuel Johns, was buried in Little Lumley churchyard near Durham.

"That was in 1916,a hundred years ago, and I'm still trying to find out why he was there during the war but that's probably for another book. So the name really came as a mark of respect for him really."

The Abberton-based writer has always been good with his hands as the gorgeous landscapes dotted around his living room demonstrate.

He started his career as an upholsterer in 1960 before moving into work studying, time management and then eventually production management.

The father of three, and grandfather to two, now spends his time painting and writing, 'when he isn't looking after the grandchildren' he smiles.

"It took me a while to formulate the complete idea for this book in my head," Colin continues, "but once I got started, it took me about eight to ten months to write the whole book.

"I got a great deal of enjoyment out of it, especially the challenge of building up a story from the facts and I cannot wait to get started on the next one."