BY day, Peter Kavanagh is in charge of making sure troops get vital supplies, but at night he enters a world of jewel thieves and adventures.

Mr Kavanagh, a manager at Bicester Defence Storage and Distribution Centre, has just published his first book, and has already started his second.

In his spare time the father-of-three spent 18 months penning the 23,000 words of his children’s adventure story Art Myatt and the Jewel of the Sun.

The action takes place in a fictitious place called Brillion, in Oxfordshire, and centres around a group of friends, a powerful jewel and a gang of international thieves.

Art finds himself staying with his Aunt Hayley in Brillion and there he makes friends with local girl Amy and his aunt’s dog, called Mr Beagle.

Together the three of them discover the powerful jewel, a ‘ghost camp’ and an old man called Samuel Septar, who turns out to be the keeper of the jewel.

Mr Kavanagh, 54, of Pipits Croft, Bicester, said the ideas for the book had been swirling around in his head for a long time and writing it had been a “lifelong ambition”.

Mr Kavanagh, a former editor of community magazine Langford Life and a grandfather-of-three, said: “Over the years I have written various short stories of about 1,700 words for magazines.

“I had got all these ideas building for a number of years and I just decided to do it.

“It was quite difficult writing the book because I only had weekends and spare time. Work had to come first.

“I don’t have any problem with writer’s block. I find when I write and focus it flows quite well.

“The ideas just developed – I probably developed them over a number of years and you just put them all together.

“It’s been a challenge but I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I am proud of myself for doing it, it’s a major achievement.”

Mr Kavanagh, who moved from Cowley, in Oxford, to Bicester in 1983, said he had no shortage of ideas for the book, its characters and their adventures.

He has already started work on a second book, a sequel, which will continue Art’s adventures.

Mr Kavanagh has worked at the Bicester supplies depot, which sends equipment such as tents, boots and ration packs to British troops around the globe, for 38 years.

The e-book costs 79p at Amazon.