BLACKPOOL pensioner Harold Palmer is hoping to grace the book shelves again with his fifth book in 15 years.

Harold, 82, only started writing after he retired as a credit salesman from the Blackpool Co-op aged 67.

And when the Grange Park community association was looking for someone to help write Home on the Grange, a history of the estate as a Millennium project, the literary pensioner pencilled in his name.

Funded jointly by The European Social Fund and Grange Park Community Association, the book is the culmination of five months of research and interviews for 82-year-old Harold.

Harold, who has lived on the estate since 1947, said: "It has been a lot of hard work and I've done it by myself.

"But it brought back a lot of happy memories of life on the estate.

"I was approached by Maureen Cook, of the Grange Park Community Association, who asked me to write something for them for the Millennium.

"I agreed because this area has had a lot of adverse publicity during the years.

"Hopefully this will go some way to redressing the balance.

"The book also features a number of people who used to live on the estate who have done well for themselves, such as Peter Hyatt, who was head of National Opinion Polls, and his son Trevor, a Carlton Television producer.

"The book is 20,000 words, but I could have made it two or three times as long."

With a foreword by ex-Grange Park resident Allan Prior, co-writer of hit TV series Z-Cars, the book is now on sale from the Grange Park Community Association shop, Chepstow Avenue, priced £3.50.

For more information call (01253) 301730.

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