NOVELIST Jeanette Hewitt's first book has been inspired by the troubles in Northern Ireland she grew up watching on her TV.

NOVELIST Jeanette Hewitt's first book has been inspired by the troubles in Northern Ireland she grew up watching on her TV.

Freedom First Peace Later examines the impact on different people in a community who get caught up in the conflict, which dominated the news for so many years.

Miss Hewitt, 30 who works for a transport firm at Felixstowe port said: “When I was young, Northern Ireland was on the TV news every day and it kind of stuck with me, it's in living memory and I thought it would be an interesting topic for a novel. There were not just two sides like there is in most wars.”

The novel tells a story from the point of view of a Protestant seeing a Catholic, a British solider and an IRA fighter, and an IRA man working under cover for the British government, and their stories are interwoven.

Miss Hewitt, who lives with her partner Darren Walne, contacted hundreds of agents and publishers in the UK before the manuscript was accepted by a New York publisher Mystic Moon Press.

“I had hoped they might publish it as an e-book which can be downloaded from the web but they liked it so much they decided to do that and also a print version,” said Miss Hewitt, who grew up in Ipswich, attending Chantry High, and moved to Felixstowe two years ago.

The book is available on-line via Amazon, but contracts are currently being agreed to sell it in Waterstones in the UK.