Dave Sivers, from Rushendon Furlong, has just finished his novel "Walk in the Night".

The story is based in the Chilterns and tells the tale of a chief reporter called Claire King, who during her journalistic investigations, solves a murder mystery for the local police.

Dave, 54, has been writing stories since he was five years old. English was his best subject and he grew up reading Enid Blyton's Famous Five stories and later The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit best sellers. All the titles captured Dave's maturing imagination.

After suffering a few knock-backs as a writer, 'Walk in the Night' is now awaiting an agent's approval before going to a publisher.

"I want to establish myself as a writer and want to be taken seriously, so I need to get myself out there!" he said.

When he's not writing stories, Dave is a civil servant, a school governor at Brookmead School in the village, and a lay-panel member of the Information Tribunal. He also writes the Ivinghoe and Pitstone column for the LBO and the Bucks Herald.

His many successes include gaining an honours degree at Open University, writing for Take A Break magazine under the pseudonym Melanie Blake, and writing a 25,000 word story after being given just one line of a Joni Mitchell song for inspiration at the crime writing festival at Harrogate. He has also won short story competitions, and written successfully-performed plays as well as sketches for TV comedies.

Dave is a member of the Chiltern Writers' Group which meets in Wendover once a month.

And there is never a dull moment in the writer's imagination as he is currently working on another title with his fellow writers. Six authors have been assigned a character and chapters to write; when it's finished all the text will be collated and the compiled draft will be presented to a publisher. Dave, who is Editor-in-chief, said: "The plot has been planned meticulously and we hope to have it finished by Christmas."

Meanwhile, Dave is enjoying his little bit of celebrity status in the village and took great delight in judging this year's floats in the carnival parade.

You can read more about Dave and his achievements, plus catch a snippet of his book-in-waiting 'Walk in the Night', on www.davesivers.co.uk .