THE managing director of a Salisbury web agency has been given a three-book publishing deal after writing a novel about the Catholic Church, World War One and Werewolves.

Rob Richardson who lives in Farley and has run enotions for 13 years said the deal was a dream come true, having wanted to write since he was eight-years-old.

Writing under his middle name Tarn, Richardson said the inspiration and motivation came after his youngest son who was bored with the stories he was being read, requested one about World War One and Werewolves.

He said: “I started writing The Damned after returning from an incredible trip to the World War One trenches in France and Belgium.

“Two of my great uncles went out to fight in France, one of whom never came back. The trip was intended to discover more about where my great uncles had been and it was an incredible journey.

“I knew I wanted to write a novel based on the area and the conflict. I've always written but armed with the discoveries from this moving trip, I was able to focus on writing a really exciting and morally complex book.”

Richardson, who has been awarded a three-book deal with the publisher Duckworth Overlook, is releasing a 10,000 word prequel in February that will be a free download to help introduce the main character of inquisitor Tacit.

“The Damned is the first in a trilogy featuring tortured inquisitor Poldek Tacit and is released in May 2015 online and will be in all good book shops.

“It begins in Arras, France, at the outbreak of World War One: a Catholic priest is brutally murdered and the Catholic Inquisition, still powerful but now working in the shadows, sends its most determined and unhinged of inquisitor, Poldek Tacit, to investigate.

“As Tacit arrives, armed forces led by Britain and Germany confront each other across No Man's Land.

“As the inquisitor strives in vain to establish the truth behind the murder and uncover the motives of other Vatican servants seeking to undermine him, a beautiful and spirited woman, Sandrine, warns British soldier Henry Frost of a mutual foe even more terrible lurking beneath the killing fields that answers to no human force and wreaks havoc by the light of the moon.”

Richardson said the book took a year to write and he is busy writing the second part of the trilogy.

For more details on the trilogy visit tarnrichardson.co.uk