Wolverhampton medic pens Egypt-inspired debut novel
A medic who penned his debut novel after overlooking Egypt's Nile river is in high spirits after the success of his read.
Phil Tittensor, who works for The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, penned 'Nubian Quest' after being inspired by his travels to the African nation.
The father-of-two, who is now in the midst of writing a sequel, decided to craft the sci-fi novel after struggles with his mental health.
Mr Tittensor, who lives in Staffordshire, said: "There's a little bit of everything. I lot of it has come from backpacking trips that I have done around Egypt.
"It came to me as I was just overlooking the Nile and beyond. There were things that just came to me and I was scribbling them down on the back of a napkin.
"There's been fantastic feedback from the people that I know that have read it and people that I don't know.
"I have family members that haven't picked up a book for years and it's got them back into reading."
Nubian Quest follows fictional Staffordshire diver John Baverbrook who goes on a hunt for an ancient artefact, not seen for 3,000 years.
The 420-page book is the first of Mr Tittensor's Nigran Chronicles, which he began writing just two years ago.
It comes after a counsellor recommended he unleash his creative side following bouts of mental health difficulties from 2012.
Mr Tittensor, who is consultant nurse for the epilepsies based at New Cross Hospital, said: "There's a lot of me in there. I went through a bit of a bad patch and got challenged by a counsellor to do something creative.
"There were trials and tribulations along the way, my mind has got in the way a few times. It's nice to exercise our brains in a totally different way.
"When the proof copy come through my door, it was like all my Christmases came at once. It looked great.
"It has been a really great sense of achievement in a totally different way to the day job.
"The book writing was a way of unwinding. I took some nice paper and an old fountain pen and just let my ideas flow."
