One day, while author Suzan Moule was walking her 11-year-old black labrador dog called Woody in the countryside nearby her home in Markyate village, just outside St Albans, she was suddenly hit with an idea for a children’s book.

In a bid to encourage young people to start enjoying the outdoors and nature instead of being permanently glued to the screens of their phones or games consoles, she wanted to write about Woody’s adventures in the fresh air.

As a result, Suzan spent the past four years writing Woody’s Park, which features Oakley the Oak Tree, the oldest and wisest tree that lives in the park, as well as Conker the Horse Chestnut tree, Beechy the Beech Tree and Suzy Squirrel.

Despite never having written a book before and only writing in her spare time whilst working in a HR office job and bringing up her now 22-year-old son called Jack, who is also a British and world champion freestyle jet skier, Suzan sent her work to an array of different publishers and was over joyed when she received a response from Olympia Publishers in September this year.

“I am absolutely ecstatic “ She says. “I sent it to a few Publishing Houses and didn’t really expect even a reply as I know how hard it is to get work published in an over saturated market, so when Olympia Publishers came back to me with such a lovely email saying they deemed it very worthy of publication and they wanted to go ahead and publish it for me, it made me cry.

“I was and still am absolutely delighted to know others love and believe in my work, it’s such a great feeling. I hope it will encourage children to get outside in the fresh air, explore, discover and enjoy all the parks, woodlands and nature on offer to them and it also makes a lovely bedtime read and is perfect for snuggling up all cosy together to enjoy.”

The story features many references to the local countryside around the village Suzan was born in and got married in, and she admits she enjoyed writing while she attended Marshalswick School, in The Ridgeway, in St Albans, which is now known as Sandringham School. However, she decided to finally put pen to paper after Jack moved to Australia for 14 months.

She explains: “I’ve always loved writing but my son has taken up a lot of our time, which is lovely but we have just been really busy with him. While he was in Australia, I had a bit of time to walk Woody and was able to develop my story, as I’ve always had a vivid and childlike imagination.

“Jack and my husband have always encouraged me to put pen to paper, so I finally did and kept tweaking the book and leaving it for a while, before finishing it and deciding to email a few publishers to try and get it out there.

“Woody is a lovely dog and it just seemed really fitting to write about him, although it is not really about him, it is more about nature and trees- Woody just pops in and out.

"I want to encourage kids to get out more as they are always on their smartphones and I know when Jack was little, he was always out in the fresh air and was a really sporty child, so I just wanted children to go out too. I thought that if young people pay more attention to nature and trees, they might identify with one of my characters and learn something new.”

Woody’s Park is available from Olympia Publishers.