HIS stage name is Henry Tudor – and his likeness to the infamous King Henry VIII is certainly uncanny.

When Ray Irving took early retirement as a teacher at Rivington and Blackrod High School in Horwich, he travelled up and down the country bringing the Tudor era alive for children, students and adults alike.

Mr Irving’s adventures as Henry VIII, which, of course, included marriage proposals, has now led him to write his first fiction novel, Son of Lewis.

The advanced skills teacher became aware of his likeness to the King Henry VIII when he took a group of pupils to an art gallery and happened to stand in front of a copy of Holbein’s painting of the monarch.

It was the children who pointed it out and the similarity between the two almost stunned them into silence.

So when he retired, Mr Irving decided to find out more about King Henry VIII to bring history to life for everyone. He applied for his Equity card and secured the name Henry Tudor!

He created a history website to provide free resources for pupils, students and tourists alike, getting hits from all over the world.

Special costumes were ordered from America to make sure he looked the part.

And for ten years he was Henry VIII of the Henry Tudor Drama Company.

Mr Irving said: "I travelled all over as King Henry, I bought a motorhome and would ask for the best place.

"I would address all the children in assembly and expect the boys to bow and the girls to courtesy, I was in character as I entered the school."

He added: "It was the teachers who asked me to marry them!"

It was while he was researching for more material for his website in Scotland he stumbled across the legend of the cruel Domhnull MacMhurchaidh who died in 1623 while visiting the famous Smoo Caves. He was a murderer and henchman from about 320 years.

This has inspired his book Son of Lewis, which has just been published, based on a serial killer with the strapline History Repeating Itself.

Mr Irving, who lives in Euxton, and is 67-years-old, said: "I always said that I would do this for ten years. I knew I could write a book, 35-years ago I wrote a 600 page reference book.

"My past working life has helped me enormously in my present writing as I have seen, done and experienced the background to all my stories.

"The main storylines are obviously made up fiction as I write crime novels and some black comedy with some sort out of crime involved."

The story is based on a serial killer and spans Scotland and Texas, where Mr Irving did a lot of his research.

He turned to Henry VIII to find a publisher.

He said: "My website has thousands of visitors. So I thought ‘surely there must be a publisher in the readers'.

"I put my own book sample on it and welcomed any publisher to contact me instead. Within one month of the website article, I had a contract in my hand."

The book is published by Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.

Now Mr Irving is sub-editing his follow up book Driftwood-Return and has eight more books in the offing.

He said: "I did a special King Henry double gig in July at a primary school in Colne.

"It was for charity and I raised £500 for Derian House in Chorley. That was my last Henry gig."

However, the website -www.henrytudor.co.uk – is still up for his fans.

The book is priced £8.99 and is available from booksellers.