IT'S been another great year for local authors, who once again have excelled in their literary endeavours.

This year there's been a number of genres to savour from music, sport, poetry, fantasy fiction and good old fashioned romantic comedy.

Here is part one of our two-part review of the local literary year.

Blag, Steal and Borrow by Gary Raymond.

THIS is a cracking, warts and all account of how a band from Colchester and Sible Hedingham became the first unsigned band in history to break into the UK Top 40 charts.

Koopa were made-up of Colchester’s Joe Murphy, and brothers Stu and Oli Cooper, from Sible Hedingham, who along with their manager Gary Raymond pulled off a rock and roll swindle to rival them all.

Not only does Gary lift the lid on how they did it, but there's also some lively stories of what they got up to on the way, including playing for the Russian Mafia, fighting with number one bands at a world famous festival, and trying to buy drugs from the FBI.

How To Throw Your Life Away by Laurie Ellingham

WITH a two-book deal already in the pipeline with Harper Collins for next year, according to Laurie this was her last book in the romantic fiction genre.

If that was the case, then what a way to go out with this hugely enjoyable read about a woman who wakes up a week before her 33rd birthday and realises that all those things she ever wanted in life like getting married, having a family, and living in a house with a big garden, probably isn’t going to happen.

So in a moment of insanity, she snaps, and Katy throws her life away.

The Day That Shakespeare Died by Dorian Kelly

IN the 400th anniversary of this country's greatest writer, it would be a shame not to feature a book about William Shakespeare.

Fortunately thanks to Colchester writer, performer and arts promoter Dorian Kelly, we can with his light-hearted look at how life after death might be for the Bard.

So thanks to Dorian we are transported to the celestial bar room cum Quantum-net Coffee Shoppe called ‘The Your Bard Tavern’, where old Bill Shakespeare is contemplating his life, death, bizarre funeral arrangements and his possible subsequent adventures with the ghost of his dog, Crab.

The Migrant Waders by Dunlin Press

ONE of the most gorgeous books you are ever likely to own, Wivenhoe's Dunlin Press have done it again with this exquisite collection of stories, essays and poems.

This time the subject was migration in all its forms with pieces by cult author David Southwell as well as Guardian country diarist Colin Williams, Martin Harper

from the RSPB and Richard Carter who co-founded the Friends of Charles Darwin.

It followed Ella Johnston and Martin Bewick's acclaimed debut Est, which along with Migrant Waders lays down a bit of a daunting gauntlet for their third.

In Good Faith by William Hagerup

A VERY personal story marked this Colchester writer's debut novel.

Based on his own experiences, In Good Faith tells the story of a young man who arrives in London in the late Nineties, to study radical Christianity at Europe’s largest super-church.

Once there, he discovers not all is as it seems, his doubts about the church and in his own faith grow, and he realises he must get out.