A HIGHLY-acclaimed St Dogmaels playwright bares something of her own soul in her latest work.

Lucy Gannon has published her first novel - an autobiographical work entitled ‘The Amazingly Astonishing Story’.

“I hope people find it funny and sad at the same time,” said Lucy.

“I have been working on it for two years. I did a radio drama called ‘Fat Little Thing’ a few years ago and delved into my childhood but did not go very far.

“I thought ‘let’s explore this further’ and have had great fun writing it.”

By turns laugh out loud, funny and deeply sad, ‘The Amazingly Astonishing Story’ is Lucy’s childhood memoir, a frank and surprising look into a child’s tumultuous mind.

A soldier’s daughter, Lucy lived in many places but after the death of her mother when Lucy was six, she was lodged with relatives in Lancashire, taken in only because the Army paid an allowance for her care.

Escape beckoned when her father remarried but Lucy and her brothers soon found they had swapped one difficult situation for another. The boys fled into the armed forces leaving Lucy behind, a loathed gooseberry in her father’s second marriage.

Lucy’s escape was her convent school where, though abysmal at maths, she discovered a flair for writing and in the nuns she found warmth and understanding. Forced to leave home at 16, she joined the Women’s Royal Army Corps - ‘the only organisation desperate enough to take me on’.

‘The Amazingly Astonishing Story’ is a classic story of a working-class girl growing up in the fifties and sixties, where dreams and reality seem irreconcilable.

Her Catholic upbringing, a father torn between his daughter and his new wife, her irreverent imagination and stubborn determination to enjoy life , all mean that Lucy really does have an amazing story (including meeting the Beatles in her school grounds) as she finds her place in the world.

Lucy is no stranger to having her stories reach a huge audience either on radio, TV or the stage as a playwright, writer and producer.

She is the author of eight plays and 18 TV dramas or series and her impressive CV includes hit TV series such as The Best of Men, Soldier Soldier, Peak Practice and Bramwell.

Her other writing credits take in the likes of Coronation Street, Eastenders and Lewis to name but three.

She has a string of awards to her name and was awarded an MBE for services to television drama in 1997. She has won the Richard Burton Award for New Playwrights and has been writer in residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

And her novel has received ringing celebrity endorsements.

Comedian and actress Dawn French said: “This is a fantastic book. Lucy Gannon offers her giant heart in this story of herself growing up and trying so hard to matter. It’s the saddest, happiest, funniest book I’ve read for ages, and it contains the most excellent swearing.”

And fellow actor Kevin Whateley said: “Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to perform in many of Lucy’s screenplays, which are always an actor’s dream: full of three-dimensional characters drawn with warmth and humour.

“Here, in her own real-life drama, she excels herself… she’ll have you in tears, barking in anger, and laughing out loud in the space of one beautifully crafted sentence.”

‘The Amazingly Astonishing Story’ is published by Seren and is available now, priced at £12.99.