A SOLICITOR who embarked on the challenge of translating a foreign novel into English has finally completed it after five years.

Andrew Clare, head of the corporate department at Napthens, Blackburn, has translated a 288 page Japanese novel called Pro Bono, written by Seicho Matsumoto.

Mr Clare, who lives in Ramsbottom, started translating the tense legal drama in his spare time while he worked for US law firm Latham and Watkins in Tokyo.

He studied Japanese language at Sheffield University, graduating as a mature student in 1991.

After that he gained a masters degree in the Faculty of Law of Kobe University in Japan.

The book, published by Vertical Inc last month, was completed during his spare time.

He said: "I did not start off with the intention of translating the whole book, it was simply a way of keeping my language skills up to scratch.

"But I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and it became a hobby for me when I had some spare time, particularly while I was on my own in Japan when my family returned to England for holidays.

"The book has a fantastic story, about a miscarriage of justice and the struggles to find legal representation.

"Seicho Matsumoto is one of Japan's most succe-ssful and prolific authors. He wrote about 400 books in a 50-year period, which is astonishing.

"I am not an established author so I was keen to choose one of his lesser known works, that way I was more likely to be able to get permission to translate it when I knew I wanted to finish the job."

In Japanese the book was called Kiri no Hata.