David Stonehouse with the e-edition of his new book

A Lichfield author admits local residents might recognise some of the settings in his new book.

Former Friary School pupil David Stonehouse has released his new novel The Five Stones.

Although a fantasy adventure at heart, the writer admits he has taken plenty of ideas from his home city to help create the book.

David Stonehouse with the e-edition of his new book
David Stonehouse with the e-edition of his new book

“The main inspiration for writing it was my daughters who are both avid readers and, like me, love fantasy stories,” he said. “I wanted to write something they would enjoy with really strong female characters and set in a world they would recognise as like their own.

“The book isn’t set in Lichfield but in a small city very like it. In fact there are locations in the fictional towns of Meadowford and Amberley that will feel very familiar to Lichfield and Tamworth residents.”

The Five Stones tells the story of Araminta Brown who is struggling to settle into her new school.

But she also has dreams and nightmares that cross over into the real world, – her nan could very well be a witch and something in the darkness is stealing babies.

Araminta must solve the mystery, but first has to discover exactly what is going on.

English teacher David has already started work on a second book and admits the rise of digital e-readers has helped authors like him to get their work out there.

“Getting a publishing deal is a bit of a nightmare these days so thank goodness for the internet,” he explained.

“The book has been really well received by visitors to my website and the online writing community Authonomy which encouraged me enough to go ahead and publish it using Amazon’s Kindle store.”

For more information visit David’s website or the Amazon page for his book.

Founder of Lichfield Live and editor of the site.