MOST people who know Great Yarmouth borough councillor Mick Castle will be more familiar with him as a hard-nosed politician fighting for local causes from the Town Hall.

MOST people who know Great Yarmouth borough councillor Mick Castle will be more familiar with him as a hard-nosed politician fighting for local causes from the Town Hall.

But the father-of-three, who represents the town's Central and Northgate ward, is hoping to show his softer side by finding a publisher for a series of children's short stories he has written.

Mr Castle, who lives in Town Wall Road, Yarmouth, has based his stories on tales he used to tell his children Gareth, 33, Faye, 31, and Daniel, 27, when they were younger.

The 59-year-old has called the stories “Monkey and John” tales, as they centre on the main character John, who lives in a house overlooking a park where there is a tree with a monkey in it, which John befriends.

One of the stories is about a charity fundraiser doing a parachute jump who ends up entangled in one of the park's trees while John, Monkey and some friends are playing football.

Another tale concerns a visit made by Monkey to John's school where he is not welcomed at first and asked to leave by the teacher. However, he quickly redeems himself by rescuing the ball from the roof during a school football match.

Local artist Sally Ellis has done the illustrations to go with the short stories.

Grandfather-of-four Mr Castle said: “When my own three children were young I used to work stories up in my head to tell them. Now I have grandchildren I thought I would start writing them down. I am not a professional writer, I just thought I would write a few stories.

“Somebody said to me you ought to try and get them published.”

And thanks to grandchildren Oliver, five, Adam, two, Jordan, 11 and Casey, seven, he has the perfect canvas on which to test his stories. However, he said if he could not find a publisher, he would still continue writing the stories for the enjoyment.

“I suppose I just wanted to do it anyway, but it would be nice to get a publisher,”

he added.