Trowbridge pastor Una Davis is celebrating the bittersweet success of fulfilling her lifelong dream of publishing a book, inspired by her late brother.

Mrs Davis, of Biss Meadow, said she was elated when she held the first copy of her book in her hands last year, which was a childhood dream.

The Bethel United Church pastor said: “I’m elated to see my book printed after so long. I was shaking with excitement when I held the first copy.”

The great-grandmother had decided from a very young age she would like to write her own novel, after reading her first book Robin Hood and his Merry Men at primary school in Jamaica.

However her dream was pushed to one side when she left school, moving to the UK 50 years ago to be with her fiancé Rudolph Davis before marrying him in Melksham.

They lived there for a year before moving to Trowbridge and having a family.

It wasn’t until her brother Melvin Douglas, 60, died in 2007 in Miami where he lived that Mrs Davis’ passion was reborn.

She said: “My brother died a few years ago in Miami and he was a big reader, so while I was there I started to read again and my passion came alive.”

Mrs Davis thought of the title of her book on that return flight back to the UK, The Pain of Letting Go.

She said: “I got the title of my book on the plane coming home, it came to me in a flash. It was the pain of letting go of the memories of my brother. We were so close and we were living so far away so I couldn’t see him as often as I liked when he fell ill.”

She started scribbling down ideas, but it wasn’t until 18 months ago that she started to write it properly, publishing with Author House in September.

The novel is about a young family in love, with everything going for them, until tragedy strikes when the wife is rushed to hospital with a brain aneurysm and is in a coma for six months. Her husband refuses to accept the prognosis from the doctors and starts to challenge his beliefs in God.

The Pain of Letting Go is available for £9.49 on www.amazon.co.uk, all major book stores, Author House publishers or from Mrs Davis’ website www.unadavis.co.uk for £9.99.