A former weekly editor who quit journalism to pursue his dream of becoming a novelist is about to see his first book published.

Stuart Robertson, who used to edit the Rossendale Free Press, is set to release Time To Say Goodbye next month.

Stuart, who left the Free Press in 2009 to pursue his lifelong ambition, has described the novel as being about a father-daughter relationship set after the death of the child’s mother.

He had harboured dreams of writing a book since he began working as a trainee reporter in 2000 on the Accrington Observer, where he would go on to become deputy editor prior to taking on the Free Press role.

Stuart, 39, said: “I was spending a lot of time with my daughter, who was about the same age as the girl in the book at the time, so I wrote about the relationship between a father and daughter.

“Obviously it’s a lot more dramatic, I’m told it’s made a lot of people cry, which wasn’t my intention.

“It’s a heart-rending story that explores what a parent would say to a child in the face of death.”

The book will be published by HarperCollins imprint Avon on 11 February.