TWO childhood friends who lost touch 20 years ago have been reunited by the release of their debut novels.

Annette Brown and Gillian Brown, both 32, met at West Craven High School and soon struck up a friendship.

But they lost touch when Gillian, who is originally from Barnoldswick, transferred to another school in Year 9.

Eighteen years later they started speaking again through Facebook and discovered that, not only did they share an interest in writing, but they were also both working on their debut novels.

Soon after, they met up in Edinburgh where Gillian now lives, and were sharing ideas for different books and stories. Gillian, who writes under the name G S Banks, began her novel ‘Dovetail Diaries’, a young adult novel based around a brother and sister in a band called The Dovetails, 18 months ago and it was published in March. Annette, who lives in Earby, began writing her novel, ‘Escape To Africa’, a gritty thriller following the fate of a child sold into child slavery and those who risk everything to save her, more than six years ago and it hit the shelves this month. Annette said: “It was so lovely to meet up with Gillian again after such a long time.

“We were very close in our teenage years, even going on holiday together with my parents to Newquay.

“I have an older sister, also called Gillian, and the teachers used to get us mixed up and often called me Gillian.

“When Gillian (Sherwood) married, she became a Brown as well. So when I saw something on Facebook about Gillian Brown getting married, I thought ‘Is there something my sister isn’t telling me?’

“Finding out we were both keen writers was amazing and allowed us both to bounce ideas off of each other.”

Gillian said: “I am so pleased that we got back in touch. We had such a good friendship in school, It was a real shame we lost touch.”

Both books are available from the Amazon website.