A PAINTER and decorator from Wordsley swapped his brush for a pen when he wrote and self-published a children’s book.

Jon Whitehouse, aged 55, wrote arMAD and Big Toe in five days, while at home recovering from an operation.

Although he had penned short stories in the past, he hadn’t planned to spend his time off writing a book and admitted: “It was just something to do, I was bored.”

He said the tale of arMAD, the posh armadillo and his zany friends, was originally written for his three grandchildren, but weeks later he decided to self-publish it on Amazon Kindle.

Mr Whitehouse said the ebook had sold well in the UK and America but he was pleasantly surprised when he was contacted by Austria based publishers, United P.C, who wanted to release the book in paperback.

He added: “It should be released in a month or two, I’m aiming for the Christmas market.

“The moral of all this is everyone has a book inside them.”

The 32-page ebook is available to purchase from Amazon, priced £1.99.