One of Pembrokeshire's best known authors has just had his third book republished by Corgi.

Brian John had to publish five novels himself before the international agency picked up on his work.

"It was quite flattering really," he said: "Because when I had written the first book I tried to get a big publisher to take it on, but none of them were interested.

"I wrote to more than 50 publishers and they said no-one reads about history in Wales so I was forced to publish myself. It is nice when you take a risk and go it alone and things succeed."

His third book, Dark Angel, is part of the Angel Mountain series following the life of Martha Morgan.

"It's basically about this woman who lives in a house on the side of the mountain and it's about her adventures as she goes through life.

"Each book follows a section of her life, she started out as a pregnant teenager and by the end she is an old woman, at the head of a large family."

Corgi has brought the first three in the series but hasn't signed the last two yet.

Brian is now working on a new novel, but is keeping the details of what it will be about closely guarded and hasn't even revealed the plot line to his wife, Inger.

"I'm sworn to secrecy as to what it is about and not even my wife knows. It will be familiar territory for the readers of the Angel Mountain books."

Brian, who lives in Cilgwyn where his wife has created a candle centre, has written more than 60 books, most of which have been geography text books.

He was born in Haverfordwest, but moved out of the county to study at Oxford University.

Brian then spent a year in the Antarctic before he began lecturing at Durham University for 11 years.

In 1976 he moved back to Pembrokeshire and started to write about the county.

"We decided to come back because we wanted a change of direction so we both became self-employed.

"I started to publish on a small scale and Inger started her candle business and we had goats, chickens and ducks alongside a productive garden.

"We were totally broke to start off with and had no money at all, so we really jumped in at the deep end.

"It was quite a struggle for a few years but we managed to move to a situation that was more comfortable without people telling us what to do."

One of Brian's most popular books is a guide to the Pembrokeshire coastline, but he has also written old folk tales in Fireside Talks From Pembrokeshire and even wrote a book of Pembrokeshire jokes before moving on to the novels.

"None of my books had been fiction so it was a total break for me, something quite novel," he said.

o For more information about Brian John's work log on to www.books-wales.co.uk.