A DESPERATE quest through a strange land by ill-assorted adventurers is the subject of The Wanderer's Tale, the first novel by David Bilsborough, published on Friday.

The author, a former Chase pupil, describes the book as in the tradition of Tolkein but with a style definitely unlike Tolkein.

Inspiration stretches back to David's teenage years, when he wrote a 375-page Chaucer-style poem about an adventure featuring himself and friends in Cheddar Gorge.

"In 1987, after months of travelling in Europe and Africa, I decided to rewrite this poem in the form of a novel," he said. "I did this for four years then had a break, which turned out to be a ten-year hiatus.

"I finally went back to writing it in 2002, re-enthused by the release of the first Lord of the Rings film. I gave up my teaching job in Vietnam and spent three more years writing, only completing it in 2005."

Completing a novel is one thing, getting it published is quite another. However, he got lucky after sending extracts to editor Peter Lavery, who has worked with best-selling authors such as China Melville, Neal Asher and Phil Rickman.

David had been rejected by all the 130 agents he had approached but his book was pulled out of the "slush pile" of unsolicited manuscripts, which does not happen often.

"On average, 300 submissions per week get into the slush pile but only one or two new authors are picked out from this a year," he said. "I'm extremely lucky to have got this contact and very grateful to Peter for his support."

The Wanderer's Tale is also coming out in the USA and Canada. At last year's Frankfurt Book Fair, French, German and Russian rights were sold. Meanwhile, David is living near Yogyakarta, Java, teaching English and drawing inspiration for future works.

The Wanderer's Tale: Annals of Lindormyn, Volume I is published by Pan Macmillan priced £14.99. The sequel, A Fire In The North, will be out next February.