A writer who spent his childhood in Norfolk has published his first novel.

Simon Cole, who in the 1950s was at Paston in North Walsham and then at Hamonds Grammar School in Swaffham, has just had his first novel The Wisdom of Sage, which has been published as an e-book.

The Sage in the title is Quentin Sage, born out of wedlock in Leeds in the eighties and the action takes the reader through London, New York, Paris and Istanbul.

Until recently Mr Cole, who is in his sixties, was living on his boat The Phyllis Teyze, on the Golden Horn in Istanbul. He now divides his time between Istanbul and Albania.

Mr Cole, who has worked in a number of professions including as a Butlins Redcoat, lorry driver and a private secretary to a Saudi Prince, said there were more books planned.

He said: 'Apart from the next two Sage books, which are well under way, I am working on a Murder-Mystery with the working title of Inscrutable in Istanbul.'

The Wisdom of Sage is published as an eBook by Welcome House is available from Kindle via www.amazon.co.uk and www.waterstones.com. It is part of a trilogy, and Middle Sage and Sage in Old Age are due to be published next year and 2014.