COLLEGE lecturer Richard MacSween's first novel was published this week. He tells PAULINE HAWKINS how a centuries-old tale of intolerance fired his imagination.

"OH Dad, Dad, you're hopeless. Useless. Gripless. Brainless. And daughterless too, soon, if you don't do something about it."

Some of the agonised thoughts of a 14-year-old girl battling to stay in touch with her father after she moves from the bright lights of Manchester with her mother, mum's boyfriend and his twin sons to a tiny village where strangers are viewed with suspicion and animosity.

Richard MacSween, lecturer in English language and literature at Nelson and Colne College, manages to put himself in the place of his fictional teenage heroine Anna as she struggles to cope with life as "a hick in the sticks" after being wrenched from the city whose streets had held such intrigue and magic for her.

Richard's first novel, The Firing, is a book aimed at teenagers and was listed by the Observer on Sunday among the best new children's titles. Published by Andersen Press at £4.99, it is a humorous yet dramatic and brooding tale of love, fear and prejudice.

Although this is his first book, Richard's previous literary work has already found audiences -- he has had poetry published, a play performed at the Edinburgh festival and a story read on BBC Radio 4. So how did he manage to write a novel from the point of view of a feisty schoolgirl with a sarcastic tongue and plenty of attitude?

"You have to imagine what it is like to be that person -- the story I wrote, broadcast on Radio 4, was told from the point of view of a 70-year-old woman," he said.

Born in Scotland, Richard, 51, lived on a farm until he was seven when his family moved to Barnoldswick. He has two sons, Alistair and George, and lives with his partner Helen and her daughter Jane in Barrowford Road, Colne. "I am sure Jane has been an influence, and probably teaching in further education has helped, hearing the language that age group uses -- my slang is now fairly well out of date," he said.

"Anna is imaginary and not modelled on anybody. Once you set characters up in a book they take on a life of their own. I hope she is a person that a lot of people can relate to."

He thought up the idea for the story -- based on Anna's friendship with Colette, a potter who arrives in the village with her teenage son Wolf -- a long time ago. It was drafted as a modern version of the Pendle Witches, a story of intolerance and of a minority group of people being regarded as outcasts.

But it was not until the summer of 1999 that he penned the full novel, writing 2,000 words a day until it was finished. "I hope it will connect with kids aged 12, 13, 14 and older -- I don't think there's an upper limit. If schools want to take it up I hope the students find it an enjoyable read and that it makes them think about intolerance, " said Richard, who is active in the Anti-Nazi League. "It is terrible to pick on small groups as scapegoats and I hope something of that will come across.

"I wrote the first draft 15 months previously and quite a lot of friends, family and my target audience read it and made comments, so quite a lot of editing work had gone on. The editor has not made many changes at all -- I have been lucky," he said.

The Firing went on general sale on Thursday. Richard hopes its contemporary style and content, which hints at the tensions between people living in homes still owned by the council alongside right-to-buy owners, will strike a chord in many readers.

He admits the title caused him some problems, as it was one of the last and most difficult parts to write. He thought a title featuring the heroine's name would put boys off, recalling how publishers had worried that a female author's name would turn them off Harry Potter.

"If JK Rowling has got boys reading Harry Potter, that's brilliant," he said. "I hope boys will read this."