Hucknall man so proud to publish his first children's book

Matt Terry, a primary school teacher in Newark, has published The Boastful Pansy, which is available now through Amazon and Waterstones.

He said: “It’s massively exciting and unbelievable as well to see a book I wrote being published.

"When you throw it out there, you don’t expect anything to come back so when it does and then soars to this extent as well, it’s amazing.

"I’m very, very proud.

"This is one of those things you don’t actually think will ever happen to you until it actually does.”

The book is aimed at children aged six to eight years-old and is the story of a pansy that grows in the winter, due to being the only plant to catch some sun.

It begins to think it it is better than all the rest as the sun only wants to shine on it.

However, when the others all grow better in the spring, it is the one left in the shade.

The story teaches children not to show off and instead show humility.

Matt continued: “I wrote it last February, in a day.

"I was washing the dishes and I saw my own pansy in the border of my garden and that gave me the idea.

"It’s all written in rhyme as well as I’m a huge fan of Julia Donaldson, she’s a big inspiration.

"I wondered how to go about getting something published, so I searched online and realised you just had to send your work to publishers and then a couple of months later, one got back to me and said they wanted to go forward.

Although Matt has always wanted to write a book, he’s never had serious ideas about being a full-time writer.

He said: “I’ve never considered myself as being an author as a profession, I’ve always wanted to teach and to be fair, even now with my book going into shops, I still see myself as a teacher first.

"But I’ve definitely got other ideas – this one I’ve had published wasn’t even my first idea for a story.

“That’s still in the bank so there’s definitely more to come.”