For more than 40 years psychiatrist Anthony Thorley had kept a book he had written in a shoe box.

Not even his wife, an author, knew about it. But when he finally told her she encouraged him to get it published.

Anthony, from Peasedown St John, grew up on the edge of Newcastle- upon-Tyne and as a teenager he wanted to record what life was like in a decaying city in the 1950s.

He has now had his book, Well Below Average, published by Archive Publishing, the same company that publishes his wife Celia Gunn's books. The 65-year-old had written a number of papers and textbooks during his medical career but no fiction.

Anthony said: "I knew when I was 18 that I was never going to see the world of dying pit villages again.

"I knew I was going to be a doctor and I decided to write down the experiences I had."

He did it in complete secrecy only writing when there was no one else at home.

Although Anthony came from a middle class background he had grown up playing with working class children.

His book is about the life of a boy who today might be considered as someone with learning difficulties, but who had a wonderful imagination.

Reviewers have said it is like a Ken Loach film – the renowned Bath-based director who is most famous for Kes.

Celia's first book was about working with a tribe of American Indians in Canada.

The 60-year-old grew up in Alnwick, Northumberland, but as a young adult moved to Israel, studied Judaism, converted and married an Israeli.

The couple moved to Canada but the marriage collapsed and she was left with three children. She later married Anthony and between them they have five children.

Celia went on to work as a cultural co-ordinator with a Native American tribe and helped them reclaim their tribal lands. Her first book is a memoir of that experience.

Her husband persuaded her that her writing was so good she should try fiction and now she has brought out A Dark Wind, which is a love story partly based on the ancient tale of Sir Lancelot and Guinevere after King Arthur died.

But it is given a modern twist where the lovers meet on a film set.