A headstone in France was the inspiration for a former regional daily journalist’s debut novel.

Paul Coffey, who used to be assistant news editor at the Nottingham Post, has written Shadows of the Somme, partially set on the first day of the First World War battle.

One of the two main characters from the book is named ‘Captain Harris’ for a Captain who perished in the battle, after Paul drew inspiration while visiting the site in France.

The battle, which took place almost a century ago in July 1916, claimed the lives of almost 20,000 British Army members on its first day alone.

Said Paul, pictured above left:”My dad first got me into the First World War and I’ve been over to the battlefields half a dozen times. Over the last 15 or 20 years it has become a real interest.

“You can visit the Commonwealth war grave cemeteries and either you take in what you see and move on, or you become consumed by it. It was the latter for me. At Christmas I ask for books on the First World War.

“I always felt in the cemeteries that I should have time to give each headstone the time and justice it deserved, to ask who that person was and what were his hopes and dreams.”

The other central character is Tom Harris, who in 2015 begins his own journey of discovery after visiting the cemetery and wondering about his namesake Edward, mirroring Paul’s own curiosity.

Paul left school at 15 and trained as a journalist at the Post, where he rose to become assistant news editor before spending 11 years with the information team at Nottinghamshire Police.

He quit his job as the force’s head of corporate communications to work as a freelance communications professional and to finish his book.

Paul added: “Professionally I had always been articulating things for other people,” he reflects, “but as the saying goes, everybody has a book in them and this story was there in my head.”

“I’ve had some very nice comments from people I don’t know, which is encouraging, and my old head teacher said he enjoyed it.”

Shadows of the Somme is available on Amazon at £7.99 paperback, Kindle edition £1.99.