A GRANDAD-of-five has written 18 children’s books in two years after penning his first at the age of 70.

Guy Turner’s latest books Tummyfull Takes A Ride and Tummyfull At Walter’s have just been released.

The 72-year-old, from Leigh, self-publishes his books about overweight duck Tummyfull and his friends.

He released his first one, Tummyfull Strikes Back, in January, 2016. It was the first book Guy had ever written.

He said: “I was inspired to write about Tummyfull by two separate incidents which took place 23 years apart.

“I was feeding ducks with my grandson around 25 years ago when he was two years old and a large one swam off. My grandson said to me at the time ‘his tummy must be full’. I did not think anything of it, but then two years ago I was on a plane home from a holiday and a stewardess asked a woman if she wanted anything to eat. “She said ‘no thanks, my tummy’s full’. I picked up a pen and by the time I got off the plane I had written a poem to go in the first book.”

Guy includes a poem at the end of each book detailing ‘life lessons’ for young readers.

Guy said: “I started off by writing a blog about my daily routine, which can be boring to start with, but when you do that you will soon be making it more interesting.

“If you then get an idea about a story like I did you may find it is not a problem to start writing your first book.”

The Tummyfull books are illustrated by Maurice Grumbleweed, a member of former award-winning comedy band The Grumbleweeds, who had a show on BBC Radio 2 in the 1970s and 1980s. See tummyfulltheduck.co.uk for more information.