Book-keeper Ned Reardon is having his first novel published – at the age of 60.

Blackberry Bill is a heart-warming tale about a 10-year-old orphaned boy who sets out alone to track down a reclusive gypsy living on the marshes around Sittingbourne.

Ned, from Hinde Close, Milton Regis, first began jotting down notes for the book as he walked his dogs across the marshes more than a decade ago.

Then his wife Judy discovered his papers and insisted he get them published.

After a string of rejections the first copies go on sale today.

Ned said: “I never set out to write a book. I love walking and started taking notes of the things I saw, the wildlife and the changing seasons.

"Over time, the characters began appearing to me out of the mist and then I sat down to put my thoughts into some kind of story.

“It was Judy who found them one day, read them and told me to get them published. Being a man, I did as I was told.

“I had about 13 rejections but each time the publishers gave me helpful advice.

"At my last attempt, my editor said he thought I had something. He sat down with me to help me improve my writing and after that is history.”

Ned’s hero is a gypsy recluse named Blackberry Bill. The grandfather recalled: “As a child, I grew up in Milton Regis and the marshes were our playground.

"But we were told to give the gypsies who lived there a wide birth.

“But I was fascinated with their culture. The children never went to school and they kept themselves to themselves. I saw people spitting and swearing at them.

“Through the character of Blackberry Bill I have tried to portray, with humour and sadness, love and tragedy, something of the Romany way of life in the late 1960s using some of my childhood recollections about the gypsy community.

“Making use of some of the Romany language, I’ve attempted to show the gypsy lifestyle I remember, including some of the prejudice, racism and injustice towards them I witnessed as a child.”

Blackberry Bill promotional video

Sheppey-born Ned added: “I’ve also delved into this area’s intriguing history and brought to life, hopefully, the more interesting bits as well as some of it’s unforgettable characters.”

His childhood friend Dave Glover from Kemsley said: “Ned is a very quiet and reserved man.

"But I’ve read his book twice and love the story. I believe it should reach a wider audience.”

Another promotional video

The book has been described as “gripping, beautifully-written story with wonderfully naturalistic descriptions which evoke comparisons with Dickens’s own accounts of the mysterious Kentish marshes.”

• Blackberry Bill, published by The Conrad Press, is £9.99. Copies are available on line at Waterstones or at Classic Curtains, The Old Post Office, Milton Regis.