A FORMER Southend College of Technology student is bursting with pride after becoming a published author for the first time.

Mark Hughes, who also attended Chalkwell Hall School and St Thomas More School while growing up in Leigh, has written children’s book The Tale of Ferdinand Frog.

Mr Hughes has sailed the Atlantic, trekked the Himalayas and part of the Amazon rainforest, toured Alaska, canoed the Orange River and sung at Wembley Arena.

But, having grown up wanting to enjoy a career in journalism, he insists The Tale of Ferdinand Frog has been a long time coming.

Mr Hughes, of Woodside, Leigh, said: “The Tale of Ferdinand Frog started out as a short poem for my eldest daughter when she was young.

“She is now 32 and the poem sometime later developed into a 46 verse story - some 2,600 words.

“My life has been exceptionally busy for many years so I was waiting for the right time to approach publishers with the book, during which time I found a fantastic illustrator and had 75 digitally produced to send out to potential publishers. I got plenty of rejection letters but two offers arrived eventually.

“It’s great seeing my book published. It’s a much better feeling than I thought it would be and it’s already had some good reviews.”

The father-of-three, who toured extensively as a spiritual singer-songwriter between the early 1990s and 2010, was inspired to write his first book due to daughter Kara being fascinated by frogs as a youngster.

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Following the promising early sales figures, Mr Hughes has his sights set on writing more children’s books.

He added: “I’ve already written a further five stories which all rhyme and are based around Ferdinand and his various friends.

“They all have themes of spirituality, love, friendship or the environment.

“The second book is called The Tale of Tommy the Tiny Tadpole and is about karma and reincarnation but the messages are very subtle.

“It’s about Tommy, who is one of Ferdinand’s children, rescuing a caterpillar from drowning and later on a butterfly helps Tommy when he is a frog.

“The others are Cyril the Squirrel, Harry the Hedgehog, Osmiroid Owl and the final book is called The Taleteller of Happiness Glade.

“It’s a number of short stories making one tale.”