A former regional daily entertainments editor and part-time clown has written a comedy novel.

Peter Brown, who spent 40 years at the Lincolnshire Echo between 1966 and 2006, has penned Chipwell Boys Tackle Europe about a group of young men who travel to Germany.

For 20 years Peter, pictured above left, was the leisure and entertainments editor at the Echo, writing the daily gossiper page.

He is now a photojournalist for the showmen’s national weekly newspaper, World’s Fair.

Describing his new book, Peter said: “It’s the story of how a group of unfit, ill-prepared young men discover their rural village has forged a twinning link with a west German community with an unpronounceable name.

“They decide to cash in on the prospect of a cheap holiday there, by forming themselves into a makeshift football team, to take on the local talent.

“But the road to the continent is paved with all sorts of pit-falls and problems, even before they make it across the Channel. And once they set foot on foreign soil, their problems are far from over. In fact, they are only just beginning.”

Peter is currently working on the next book in the series.

He added: “After a career of writing hard news stories and features I thought it would be nice to have a bit of a change, I just wanted to enjoy it.

“I did write a book whilst I was at the Echo called Hold the Front Page and Send in the Clowns which was partly about my time at the Echo and about my part-time career as a clown but that was almost 10 years ago.”

Chipwell Boys Tackle Europe is available on e-books from Amazon.co.uk for 99p.