A FIRST time novelist has released a book inspired by his years working at the dump.

Norman Townsend, of Weyhill, has worked in waste and recycling centres across Hampshire for 30 years.

Inspired by his day-to-day life, Norman has ‘stretched the truth’ to write what has been described as an “exciting and entertaining” novel and “an excellent thriller”.

The book chronicles what it would be like if a criminal gang ran the waste centres in Hampshire. It is called, inevitably, Trashed.

The retired grandfather-to-be had always enjoyed writing, and had one short story published before in 2006 in Yours Magazine.

He is a regular attendee of Andover Writers Group but writing a novel was a goal he was surprised to achieve.

He said: “When you sit down to write it, you just think ‘I’ll just write a book’ and then suddenly it’s done and you think, ‘If I’ve done it, its got to go out there and people are going to see it and could think bad things about it, like he writes like Enid Blyton on speed’.

“This has been an eye opener for me and probably, if I was to know what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have started to write the book in the first place.

“Now that I’ve seen two or three reviews which are good, I’m happy and I can actually go forward, but if the reviews had been not quite so good, I would have probably just called it a day.”

The common exotic settings of thrillers inspired Norman to write about what he knew.

He added: “It describes places that you’ll recognise in Hampshire, especially if you’ve gone to the tips, and the fact that it is set in the tips is a little bit unusual and fun.”

He also hopes to shed some light on the side of the tip people do not see.

He added: “The setting is something everybody assumes runs in a certain way, this book changes that and it goes on at quite a pace with bombs, mayhem and murder. It can be great fun. I have to say I’ve stretched the truth considerably.

“It may not be totally possible, but it has to be plausible. For anyone that thinks a trip to the tip is boring, think again.”

Norman plans to officially launch the book at The Main Event taking place at the Best Western Hotel, in Micheldever Road, on September 20.

Trashed is available to order now on Amazon.