A FATHER and son from Broad Chalke are behind a new multimedia publishing project involving the simultaneous release of books, graphic novels, videoblogs and audio books.

Created by David Singleton and illustrated by his son, Ben, The Vicar Chronicles is a series of whodunits about the music industry.

The true identity of the central character, a semifictional record producer called The Vicar, is a closely guarded secret, although, according to Mr Singleton, he is rumoured to live in Wiltshire.

Described as “Sherlock Holmes meets Spinal Tap” and blurring the lines between fact and fiction, the stories are narrated through the eyes of Punk Sanderson, the Vicar’s assistant.

Mr Singleton said: “In the past, a young writer would probably have just written a book – but nowadays people follow stories in all sorts of different ways, so The Vicar Chronicles have been released as physical books, ebooks, graphic novels, audiobooks and you can even see Punk Sanderson performing the whole book on YouTube.”

The project has taken ten years to complete and involves the release of two books, in all formats, by Robert Fripp’s DGM label. The first, entitled The Mysterious Case of Billy’s G String, is out now while the second, The Absurd Nonsense of The Orange Eyebrow is out later this year.

A debut album by The Vicar is due to be released at the end of March.

Mr Singleton, who coowns DGM, said: “It’s the first time to my knowledge that the same team have produced all the multimedia aspects of a project of this kind right from conception. We are also currently working on both a film script and a TV series.”

For more information visit thevicar.com or youtube.com/punksan derson.