A FORMER accountant has taken to books of a different sort and put pen to paper to write a novel.

'Through The Mill' is the first time that John O'Hara has written a book, but it has already been so successful people are asking him to write the sequel.

John, manager of the Spar Shop in Manchester Road, Burnley, said: "I haven't got a GCE to my name. I left Towneley High School at 15 because my father had died when I was 14 and I had three younger brothers to help bring up, so I went to work."

John's parents were both involved in the weaving trade and he worked in various footwear firms in Rossendale, assisting chairman and managing directors as a trade union secretary with employment law and industrial relations. He was also the accountant for former Burnley engineering firm Regent Axle.

He said: "Many of the shoe firms I was dealing with were started by grandfathers and still being run by their grandsons and I got the inspiration for the book."

His book is set in the middle of the 19th century and tells the story of Herbert Ashworth on his journey from boy to man.

The story is told against the background of Lancashire's cotton industry and explains how the workers were forced to live hand-to-mouth.

John is selling copies in his Spar shop and the book is also available in Badger Books, Keirby Walk, and Burnley Central Library.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.