A WRITER whose novel was rescued from the 'slush pile' has been chosen to feature on a list of 100 'Hidden Gems' for next year's World Book Day.

Playing With the Moon, by Eliza Graham, of Kingston Lisle, near Wantage, was chosen by World Book Day organisers, who are asking readers and book groups to vote between now and next March to whittle down a shortlist of ten.

She was spurred into writing her first novel after hearing that a university colleague had had her first book published. She wrote two novels, which landed up on the 'slush pile' of manuscripts rejected for publication.

Undaunted, she cast around for a third idea. Playing With the Moon was inspired by a visit to the "ghost village" of Tyneham in Wiltshire, deserted since the Second World War, when it was commandeered for target practice by troops.

The wartime whodunnit, interwoven with a modern love story, attracted the attention of an editor at publisher Macmillan's New Writing scheme, and - after several re-writes - Playing With the Moon found its way into print.

She said: "I was so used to email rejections that I scanned through the reply looking for the 'sorry' line. It took me some time to realise that it was not a rejection."

She spent time in the Imperial War Museum, which has a 1940s house and air-raid shelter, and also drew on a Mary Renault novel about abortion in the 1930s.

Though born in 1968, she is fascinated by the war years. Her next novel is set "in a snowy house in an East German forest in 1945, with the Russian Army approaching, and a strange collection of characters taking refuge".

Votes for the hundred Hidden Gem titles can be cast on the World Book Day website: www.worldbookday.com/spreadtheword/