TWIN sisters are celebrating selling more than 4,000 copies of a book they wrote together — 20 years ago.

Victoria Bracegirdle and Rebecca Bentley, aged 37, always loved writing and would often spend time after school making up stories for each other.

When they went to sixth form, where their father Robin Heap worked as head of science, they wrote a story together while they waited for him to finish each day.

When they went off to Leeds University the story was soon forgotten, and after graduating in 1996 they settled into very different vocations — Victoria became a solicitor and Rebecca became a foster carer.

But three years ago Rebecca found a copy of the story that they had typed out all those years ago, and decided to write it into a novel — Behind the Façade — a thriller mixed with romance and betrayal.

The book was released in July this year and since then they’ve sold more than 4,000 copies of the download version through Amazon Kindle, and more than 100 hard copies.

The pair, from Heaton, first started writing their novel when they were at Bolton Catholic Sixth Form.

Mrs Bentley said: “We were very similar academically. We both loved writing stories, even in primary school. We’d write each other stories at home in our little exercise book.

“I remember writing one once and it being read out by a pupil in school. She sobbed as she read it and that’s the first time I thought that maybe it was something I was good at.

“We started thinking up this story idea when we were 17 and waiting for dad, who was head of science, to finish work, but forgot about it after we went off to university.”

Mrs Bracegirdle said: “I didn’t realise that Rebecca still had a copy. It did seem a bit cheesy, so we did have to change some parts.

“It’s basically a thriller mixed with romance and betrayal. We had to put dad’s mind at rest that some of the racier parts weren’t added until more recently.”

Behind the Façade can be purchased from Amazon Kindle for £2.49, or £7.99 for a paperback version.