Bath Author Wants Christmas Bestseller

A Bath Children's author who self-publishes books in his spare time is hoping to raise cash for charity by grabbing the Christmas number one bestseller spot.

Tim Lerwill has put a £20 pound bet on being number one in the book charts at Christmas. With odds of 500-1 he says he'd split the £10,000 winnings between CLIC Sargent, Save the Children and the NSPCC.

Lerwill's book 'The Snow Sheep' is based on his childhood memories of growing up on a farm in North Devon.

He's launched a twitter campaign which already has high profile followers like Yoko Ono and Nancy Sinatra.

Tim said 'In the same way that music fans became frustrated with the X Factor Christmas monopoly and took Rage Against The Machine to the top of the charts last year, I think the book buying public is fairly unimpressed by the endless round of celbrity autobiographies and recipe collections which seem to dominate the lists of best-selling Christmas books. Wouldn't it be great if a beautifully illustrated and imaginative story by a self-published, previously unknown author could trump them all and raise money for some great charities at the same time'