An editor who quit due to stress has published his first novel – describing it as “the perfect therapy” after his departure.

Patrick Edwards, pictured, resigned as the editor of the Brecon & Radnor Express in July, but has now self-published Playing Away after writing the book in just eight days.

The book tackles sexuality in sport, with a central theme about a top flight English footballer coming out as gay.

The 54-year-old, who has worked in newspapers for more than 30 years, came up with the idea while out riding his bike one day.

Patrick said: “From the moment I had the idea for the book to writing the final sentence took a little over one week.

“For those eight days I simply ate and slept, otherwise I was at my laptop hammering at the keys, it was as if the book wrote itself. When I finished I found I’d written 50,000 words.”

He added: “Writing a novel was just the therapy I needed after leaving the Brecon & Radnor Express at a difficult time when several staff were made redundant and workloads were being reorganised.”

Father-of-two Patrick believes the arrival of the first openly gay high-profile footballer could happen “any day now”.

He said: “It’s only a matter of time before the Premier League has its first openly gay player. This was a subject I wanted to explore and I didn’t want to turn on the TV and find I’d been beaten to the punch.”

Describing the book, he added: “I would describe it as adult fiction set in a sporting context. There is plenty of sex in it but there’s much more to it than that. If anything it’s a book about modern relationships.”

Patrick had tried to find a publisher for his book over the summer, deciding to publish it himself on Amazon when no-one came forward.

The book is available for a limited period as a free e-book through Amazon UK’s Kindle Unlimited service, and is also available as an ebook and a paperback on Amazon Books.