A MELKSHAM pensioner who started writing historical fiction after he retired has just published his fifth novel and started work on the sixth.

John Michael Doyle’s latest book, ‘Requiem for a Reiver’ is published by Olympia Publishers and is about the lawless Border Region between England and Scotland in 1588.

He says: “My wife Shireen comes from the north of England. We did some family history research on her ancestry and found that she is descended from a notorious Reiver family, the Elliotts, who raided the borders of Scotland.

“This intrigued me so I decided to write about it. It has taken me about three years to produce but I don’t write for a living, I write for a hobby.”

Mr Doyle, who is just about to celebrate his 81st birthday, was born in Ireland in 1938 and moved to England at the age of 17.

“My mother Lillian was English and my father William was from County Kerry. We moved back to England and I worked in a sawmill in Bath.”

Mr Doyle later spent three years in the Royal Artillery Regiment and, after leaving the army, joined an engineering company in Bath.

He later moved into the aerospace industry to work for Dowty in Atworth for 22 years and then worked as deputy secretary for the Institution of Engineering Designers.

After several years of study, he gained a BA (Hons) degree from the Open University, and later became an associate lecturer for the OU.

On retirement, he took up writing historical fiction after delving into his own family history and unearthing a story about his Irish grandfather Michael Doyle.

“He was a bit of mystery. Nobody knew much about him and I found out that he had been the last coachman on a large country estate in Ireland.

“He lost his job when the house closed during the First World War and he moved to Scotland to help build the Great Munitions Factory at Dornock.

“He died of a heart attack on the train from Dornock to Carlisle and was buried in a pauper’s grave because no-one knew where he came from or where his family was.”

The story written for his granddaughter in 2006 was then turned into his first novel, The Last Coachman, and was published by Olympia in 2010.

Mr Doyle’s career as a novelist has taken off from there. He says: “I always wanted to write historical fiction and since then I have written four more novels.”

They are This Bitter Land, Shake Hands With A Connaught Ranger, An Tanaiste (The Heir) and the latest, Requiem for a Reiver.

All have been very meticulously researched by Mr Doyle, who lives with Shireen in The Close, Melksham. The couple have one daughter, Catherine, and two granddaughters.

He is now working on his sixth novel, which is set against the Monmouth Rebellion in 17th century England and the Battle of Sedgemoor.

“My son-in-law is descended from people who were involved in the Monmouth Rebellion. One was hung at the Bloody Assizes which started in Winchester in 1685 following Monmouth’s defeat and another was transported.”

Mr Doyle is also much in demand to speak at local libraries and societies, although he does a lot less public speaking these days.

He says: “It’s a catch 22 – you have to be famous to sell lots of books but you have to sell lots of books to become famous!”

Published by Olympia Publishers, part of Ashwell Publishing Ltd, Requiem for a Reiver is priced £12.99. It is available on Amazon and from all good book stores.