Capital author write up there in award list

AN Edinburgh author has been shortlisted for the Royal Mail Scottish Children's Book Award.

Jan Andrew Henderson, who runs the City of the Dead ghost tours, is competing with two other authors in the older readers category for the £3000 prize, voted on by schoolchildren throughout the country.

His entry, Bunker 10, offers teenage readers an action-filled story with, as Mr Henderson put it, a "very high body count."

"This was my first foray into what I really want to do," he added. "It's really dark. Everybody dies on the first page."

The book begins with an explosion that decimates a military bunker in Scotland, killing everyone inside, and goes on to relate the events of that day from the perspective of the teenagers involved.

Mr Henderson has previously published several non-fiction books and two novels for younger readers. His new book, Crash, also has a gory tone. "Kids always look for something darker and nastier," he said.