Novelist burns new book in fire!

A best-selling children's author watched in dismay as his unpublished novel went up in flames after he accidentally threw the manuscript on a bonfire.

Graham Taylor, 43, was clearing out before moving house and burning piles of what he thought were unwanted papers. But he realised too late that the flames had consumed the only updated draft of his unpublished work, Tersias.

Also burned were the original manuscripts for the author's bestselling thrillers, Shadowmancer and Wormwood.

"To cap it all, I got a call from a plumber working in my new house who told me it had just been flooded. It was a black day," said Mr Taylor, who publishes as JPTaylor.

The copyright to Shadowmancer has been sold to Universal Pictures in a multi-million dollar deal, and Wormwood is also to be made into a film.