WORLD famous author William Woodruff has a real life "double" living in a terrace house in Oswaldtwistle.

While the men's lives show remarkable similarities, the brains behind best seller "The Road to Nab End" can still pull rank on his 80-year-old namesake -- he's six years older!

But that didn't stop him sending a special birthday message to his new-found friend when he celebrated his birthday yesterday.

William, now living in Blackburn Road, shares more than just a name with the famous author -- he was born and brought up in the same part of Blackburn and went to the same school as him, as well as working in Hornby's mill.

William Woodruff senior, now 86 and living in Florida where he is a successful academic, made his name writing about his childhood and early life among the mills of East Lancashire.

William junior, who has been married to Mary for 56 years and has two sons and three granddaughters, said he felt as though he was reading his own life story when he first read The Road to Nab End, which chronicles life in a Blackburn weaving community during the Great Depression of the early 20th Century.

He has congratulated the celebrated professor, who shares his name on the success he has made of his life after leaving East Lancashire and heading for London, then becoming a student at Oxford University.

William has lived in and around Blackburn all his life and worked at Newman's Footwear for 20 years after serving throughout Europe in the Army during World War Two. He worked at another footwear factory before retiring with health problems.

The similarities between the two men's early lives are so uncanny that William wrote to Florida after reading the book five years ago, to inquire whether the two men could be related.

But while there is no family connection between the two men, the similarities between their childhoods are "uncanny."

He said: "When I first read the book, I couldn't believe it. There's just so much coincidence. It was almost like reading my life story because I recognised things like schoolteachers and buildings he wrote about.

"I am from a very poor background and the Blackburn that is described in The Road to Nab End is very real to me. I remember the houses, all two-up two-down, and barely having enough money to eat.

"We used to follow the coal lorry and look for lumps that fell off. It was all very different from how things are today.

"I'm really pleased to get a message from him for my birthday. It's amazing."