Kerry Hughes, from Long Bennington, launches new children’s book The Treasure Trails, with publisher Barnard Publishing

A new children’s book by a debut author from Long Bennington, more than 15 years in the offing, has hit the shelves.

Kerry Hughes’s first book, The Treasure Trails, was launched into the book world on Friday, and she hopes her book will bring joy to reading for children.

The Treasure Trails was written back in 2010, and came about when she was reading her son a bedtime story, and as he is mixed race, she said that she wanted to write a story with a hero who looked like her son Dexter Marple, now aged 20.

“I haven’t seen any books or cards where someone looks like him or his dad, and I wanted a black person as the main character,” she explained.

Kerry said the aim is to try and make reading fun for children so they will be more inclined to want to read.

“There is a lot of pressure on children to be able to read, and I think it can take the fun out of it,” she said, “So I’ve tried to make it as fun as possible.”

The Treasure Trails sees Captain Scruffbeard on a quest to follow a map and find treasure, and even has its own treasure map in the back of the book that families can do themselves at home.

Kerry said she submitted it to many different publishers back then, but didn’t have any luck so shelved her project for a while.

She then teamed up with an illustrator in Wales and tried once again to get her book out in the public domain, and finally, 15 years after first putting pen to paper, was offered a deal with Barnard Publishing.

“It’s been a long time coming, but finally we got there,” Kerry said.

The Treasure Trails is now available to buy from Waterstones, Amazon, and many other online retailers.