A journalist’s views of the regional press are explored in a new novel which he has written.

Liam Barnes, who works as a reporter for Police Professional magazine, has released The Angle as an e-book which tells the story of ten years in the life of a fictional journalist Chris Young.

Chris attends training then works for a local paper as an energetic young reporter before moving on to work for a trade magazine and national newspapers, then returns to the regional press in a more senior position.

Liam completed journalism training with News Associates in Manchester and the book is based on his early experiences in journalism, although none of the characters were directly based on people he met.

The book also explores the issues faced by newspapers in the digital age and Liam’s views on journalism training.

He said: “I have seen quite a lot of local papers through placements. Some of them are pretty good but a lot were a bit ropey.

“The local newspaper in the story is not a good one. The office is half empty and there’s a lot of churning out of press releases. There’s a lot of local papers like that.

“There’s accounts in the book that have been observed through people that I have met or worked with which has influenced it but there’s no direct characters that are based on somebody else.”

Liam admitted the book was negative about some aspects of journalism but said there were positive elements in it as well.

The book is available from Amazon and other websites.