A former regional daily editor turned writer has fulfilled a lifetime’s ambition by writing and publishing his first novel.

Russell Hunter, who is the former editor of the Worcester News, has written Solid Oil – a novel set in the murky world of eco-terrorism.

The 65-year-old freelancer now lives in Australia but has also worked as a reporter in Aberdeen, Shropshire, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong and Fiji.

He describes the book, which has been published in the United States, as an ‘eco-thriller’ set in Papua New Guinea, Canberra and Washington with cameo appearances by Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong and Monte Carlo.

Solid Oil is Russell Hunter's first novel

“The story revolved around the pursuit of lithium, a light metallic element used in batteries and nuclear bombs and found in rainforests,” he told HTFP.

“There is a Vietnamese gangster after the precious resource and the first woman U.S president who has her own plans for it.”

The novel also includes a mix of murder, corruption and a category 5 hurricane but Dundee-born Russell says it was not easy to write.

“I started on Solid Oil in about 1995 but my computer was damaged en route from Sydney to Fiji in 1996,” he added.

“I made the mistake of accepting the paper’s IT expert’s offer to fix it, telling him that under no circumstances was he to wipe the hard drive – he did.

“When I returned to Australia from Samoa  I took up the story again. It’s a very difficult thing to get a general interest book published now.

“Publishers have to outlay large sums and then wait and hope. So they’re starting to prefer short-run specialist books with a predictable if small sale.”

Russell’s own career has not been without incident having been abducted from his home by soldiers of a military dictator whilst working for a newspaper in Fiji in 2008.

“He wanted total control of everything including – especially- the  media,” said Russell,

“I took a very firm line against this in the paper and clearly had to go.

“A gang of squaddies (not in uniform – in fact it was denied that they were military until that position was no longer tenable) arrived at the house and took me to a secret location overnight before marching me on to a plane for Sydney the following morning, despite a court order obtained in the meantime, that I was not to be removed from the country.

“My daughter, then 13, was especially traumatised at the sight of her father being forced into a car by seven men in the middle of the night.”

The book is available on Amazon as a hardback, free download and as a kindle copy.