SPINE-TINGLING novels which are popular worldwide have been written by an author with roots in East Lancashire.

Pauline Hawkins discovers how Stephen Booth made the switch from journalist to successful novelist.

SIX months ago, Burnley-born Stephen Booth was the deputy editor of the Worksop Guardian, a weekly newspaper in north Nottinghamshire.

After 27 years in journalism, promotion had dulled his creativity as he was no longer employed to write hard-hitting news stories.

Instead he was dealing with budgets and re-working copy submitted by less experienced reporters.

But by then his first published novel, Black Dog, had sold thousands of copies and his second, Dancing with the Virgins, was on its way to the bookshelves.

And as he was in the process of writing a third, Blood on the Tongue -- to be published in April next year -- he pulled the plug on his day job.

Stephen, 49, who now lives near Retford, Nottinghamshire, with his wife Lesley, owes part of his success to sheer determination.

"You have to be single-minded about it. I was working literally every hour I could, writing in the evening and at weekends. My wife never saw me," he said.

That dedication has earned Stephen a trip to America next month. Despite the atrocities of September 11, an awards ceremony to which he has been invited will go ahead.

He will fly to Washington DC to attend Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, where Black Dog has been shortlisted for two top awards. If he wins the Anthony Award for Best First Mystery Novel, Stephen will be in illustrious company.

Previous winners have included Patricia Cornwell, Elizabeth George and Jonathan Kellerman.

The book has also been nominated for the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel.

And he learned this week that Dancing With The Virgins has been shortlisted for the UK's top honour for crime writing, the Gold Dagger Award, to be presented by the Crime Writers' Association the day after he returns from the States.

Psychological thriller Black Dog, published in the UK by HarperCollins, is the first in a series set in the Peak District and features young detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry.

To Stephen's delight, it was named by the London Evening Standard as one of the six best crime novels of 2000 and was the only one on its list written by a British author.

Stephen and his parents, Jim and Edna Booth, left Burnley when he was two years old and settled in Blackpool.

His mum and dad now live in Freckleton, near Preston, and until recently their son's success had made little impression on them.

Only when they paid a visit to their local library one day and overheard a librarian pointing them out as Stephen Booth's parents did they realise the enormity of his achievement.

But it took years of perseverance for him to "make it".

After studying for a general arts degree in Birmingham on leaving school, he at first failed to break into journalism after graduating and instead took a one-year teacher training course, where he met his wife.

"I didn't last very long. I got out of teaching when I discovered there were children involved. I had quite horrific experiences at a comprehensive in Manchester," he said.

From there he retraced his steps and this time managed to secure a job on the weekly Wilmslow Advertiser, later moving to Yorkshire where he worked for the Huddersfield Examiner and the Barnsley Chronicle before heading to Nottinghamshire. Stephen had been writing novels since he was a schoolboy but suffered his fair share of rejections from publishers.

His big break came when he met a London-based agent who advised him to drop sci-fi ideas and write straight crime fiction instead. And so Black Dog was born.

The idea came from a story in the Worksop Guardian about a man who had gone missing from home.

Police searches failed to find him, but his life was saved by a man walking his dog.

In Stephen's novel, a teenager's body is found in woodland near her home in the Peak District by a dog walker.

What if, thought Stephen as he pulled the threads of an idea together, that the person who found the body was more integral to the story than the victim?

Stephen's favourite author, Reginald Hill, wrote of his debut novel: "Black Dog sinks its teeth into you and doesn't let go . . . a dark star may be born!"

And critic Val McDermid wrote: "In this atmospheric debut, Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter."

Stephen had read many books by Agatha Christie, PD James and Ruth Rendell and wove personal details and emotions into the characters of his books, avoiding the shoot-'em-up writing style often preferred by male writers. "There is a view in publishing that these are not the sort of books expected from a male author," he said.

Conversely, Joanne Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, was advised by publishers to use her initials JK because they did not think little boys would buy books written by a woman.

Stephen, who has relatives in the Burnley and Blackburn areas, including his brother Peter, has sold the television and film rights to Black Dog to an independent TV company.

And he hopes DCs Ben Cooper and Diane Fry may one day fill the gap on our TV screens left by the late Inspector Morse.

Stephen's fans can catch up with him later this month at the Dead on Deansgate crime fiction festival in Manchester.

The event runs from Friday, October 19, to Sunday, October 21, and there will be an interview and question-and-answer session with Stephen on the Friday at the Renaissance Hotel from 3.30 to 4.30pm.

Anyone who would like tickets for the event can telephone Waterstones on 0161 837 3080.