A WIRRAL author is celebrating after his first book was nominated for a national award.
Jon Mayhew’s book, Mortlock, is one of nine in the running for this year’s Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize.
He said: “Getting on the shortlist for the Waterstones award is a real thrill. Just to have that support and to know that your book is being pushed by a big high street chain is amazing.
“The book is selling really well, and is also WH Smith’s children’s book of the month, so you’ll see it in their travel stores and their high street shops.
“So far, it has been translated into Russian, Indonesian, German, Spanish, Catalan and Turkish.”
Jon, a former teacher at Rock Ferry High School who lives in Neston with his wife and four children, wrote Mortlock after being laid up with a broken ankle in 2006 and it was soon snapped up by Bloomsbury, publishers of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books.
Mortlock is described as a Gothic historical adventure book.
