Choirboy's secret for writing a novel at 17

THIS may be worth thinking about next time you see a cathedral choir.

What is really going on behind those innocent faces? Britain's latest literary prodigy Anselm Audley, aged 17, has just signed a 50,000 contract for his first novel. He attributes his success as a storyteller to six years as a schoolboy chorister, first at York Minster, then at Wells Cathedral.

The cloisters, the candlelit evensong, the monastic politics, the psalms, but above all the discipline of striving simultaneously towards choral and academic targets - as well as working to pay for one's education - proved a potent brew.

"Years of going to services in cathedral choirs gives you a feeling that there's more to being at school than simply learning Latin," said Anselm.

"There is a beautiful strength in the writing of the psalms which makes you concentrate but at the same time encourages your imagination to run riot, even when you are not singing them."

Anselm's debut novel Heresy, the first of a trilogy, introduces the world of Aquaselva, where the Domain holds absolute power, and anyone who opposes the order is branded a heretic. Its protagonist, Cathan, is the heir of a remote clan with its own distinct beliefs who struggles to defend his people against the Domain's Inquisition.

Anselm was a day boy at Millfield School in Somerset, working for his A-levels, while coming home in the evenings to write his book. His parents were worried that he was not giving enough time to his academic work, but they need not have feared.

He got A grades in his three A-levels, and in his general paper.

"They all went well, but I'm not sure how," he said.

Now in his gap year before going to St John's College, Oxford, he is at work on the second book while doing two more A-levels at sixth form college.

Anselm's mother Lizzie, who once worked at Macmillan, sent the manuscript to James Hale, a former colleague who after minimal editing recommended it to Simon & Schuster.

"I was stunned when I got the contract, and so were my parents. It took me a few days to recover," said Anselm.

John Jarrold, at Simon & Schuster, has compared Heresy with Tolkien.

"He is wonderful on characterisation, both of young and old," he said.

"His is a very mature talent. I am confident that we have the underpinnings of an excellent series." For a young man who has won a windfall, Anselm's plans are commendably down to earth. He hopes his 50,000 will pay his way through university and afterwards fund a trip to America. Beyond that his plans are vague.

"I don't have much idea what I want to be - I don't even know that I want to be a writer yet," he said.

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