In the frantic run up to Christmas, Gretel Parker will be working 11-hour shifts stacking supermarket shelves with bread and cakes to fund her small business The Tiddler Press which aims to bring a little magic to its readers, writes Janet McMeekin.

Launched in 1996 with a £250 grant from the Prince's Youth Business Trust, Gretel has been responsible for writing, illustrating and designing four enchanting, yet unassuming, fairy tale books from a bedroom at her home in Dovehouse Close, Eynsham.

The clever little books such as The Angel and the Thief and Algy and the Balloon Lady, appeal to readers of all ages but on different levels. "My readers are normally women who either buy them for themselves or to read to children. They are, I suppose, modern fairy tales with a moral. They run a lot deeper than just the actual story and provoke lots of questions and discussion," Gretel explains.

Over the past three years, the publisher has sold 500 of her Pocket Magic books. Although this may not sound like very many to the 'big boys' of the publishing world, it's a major achievement for the 32-year-old whose traumatic life story is enough to make most reasonably privileged folk count their blessings. Orphaned at the age of 12, Gretel spent many years flitting from foster homes to grotty flats, coming into regular contact with down-and-outs and drugtakers.

But through all the bad times, her passion for reading, writing stories and illustrating kept her going.

"One day, while living in a damp bedsit in Bournemouth, I realised that I really wanted more out of life," she says.

Gretel set about scraping enough money together to put herself through college and graduated from the former Newcastle-on-Tyne Polytechnic with a BA hons degree in graphic design. For two to three years after graduating, Gretel tried to get publishers to accept her work but constantly came across closed doors and negative comments about her work being too "old fashioned".

"It was only after reading an article in Country Living about self-publishing that the penny dropped and it became so obvious. I decided to publish my books myself.

"The Prince's Trust grant helped me buy my first Apple Mac and I did various cleaning jobs in private houses to raise enough cash for a printer.

"I wasn't driven by making a huge profit, I just wanted to be able to make enough money to enable me to produce another book," she says. To date, Gretel has published four books which are currently on sale, priced £2 each, at places such as the gift shop in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, Blackwells and Waterstone's in Oxford and The Cat's Whiskers gift shop in Eynsham.

Old friend Patrick Mouat, who lives in north Devon, illustrated the most recent addition Alphabestiary - a menagerie of tongue-twisting animal rhymes.

Another entitled Mr Crow's Party Dress is coming soon. Gretel says: "Running The Tiddler Press is a struggle but it's also very rewarding. I think my life has made me strong.

"My parents may not have given me much materially but they did give me the gift of imagination and the belief that I could do whatever I wanted, even if that means stacking shelves to help pay the bills."

Story date: Wednesday 15 December

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.