LOWER Gornal author Iain Yardley appears to have a literary hit on his hands with his first ever book entitled 'Ninety Seconds at Zeebrugge'.

The book charts a time table of events that engulfed the tragic Herald of Free Enterprise car ferry disaster which took place in March 1987.

A total of 193 people lost their lives in the tragedy and Iain said: "It's a subject that has always fascinated me. I travelled on that ferry during a school trip only a year beforehand.

"I sometimes think what I would have done if I was on board that day and faced with the situation. It's about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances."

Iain has worked for 20 years as a buyer for an engineering company in Kingswinford and has written the book during his spare time.

He estimates it has taken him between seven and eight years to complete the book and said: "There was a great deal of letter writing and researching involved.

"But I was keen to write the book because there was a shortfall in the market about the disaster. In fact there's only ever been one previous book written on the event and that came out straight after the disaster.

"My book encompasses every aspect of the event.

"As a result, I've had people who survived the disaster get in touch and they've been very complimentary, which is a big relief - because it was exactly for those people that I wrote the book."

Already Iain's book has sold over 600 copies and there's the likelihood of another print run.

Copies can be obtained through Amazon or from publishers The History Press of Stroud.

In the meantime Iain is contemplating writing another book, he added: " I wanted to see how Ninety Seconds at Zeebrugge was received first. I've an open mind at the moment about which topic to do, but it's likely to be something which people can remember and relate to."