Wigan teenager's debut book goes global

Thousands of copies have already been sold of Allies and Axis by 14-year-old George Birch - and as far afield as in the US and Australia.

The Orrell St Peter’s High School pupil is amazingly relaxed about this remarkable achievement and in fact is already planning a sequel!

The 130-page tome follows the lives of three young men, one of whom - Edward - is partly based on George’s own great-grandfather of the same name - and is set against the giant and dramatic backdrops of the two world wars.

George brings into play his love of both history and English language in the book which has won several approving reviews online.

The youngster, who lives with his mum Susan and grandparents Marian and Bernard in Sandford Road, Orrell, occupied himself with the novel during lockdown and was delighted when American publishing company Author House snapped it up.

George said: “I was very pleased to get the book into print and it seems to be doing very well. It’s a combination of fact and fiction, including my own great-grandfather’s experiences, and one of the other characters I base on a real soldier who captured Adolf Hitler in the First World War, had the chance to shoot him but lived to regret sparing him.

“The book is proving particularly popular in America. Sometimes I think ‘I can’t believe I have written it’.”

Yet there are already more books in the pipeline. He is already four chapters into a follow-up drama with the Cold War and decolonisation at its heart and involving some of the same characters.

Bernard said: “His family are all very proud of him and so too is his school.”

Allies and Axis is available from Amazon, Waterstone’s and We Buy Books among other sources.

It retails for £9.95 in paperback, £21.95 in hardback and around £4 on Kindle.

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