A RETIRED East Lancashire English teacher allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction when local author Mick Jackson received a Booker Prize nomination for his debut novel.

Eric Whittle began to influence the novelist's life when he was a bored pupil at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, more interested in his next fag than creative writing.

And Mick has never forgotten the part his former teacher had to play in setting him on the way to a career as an acclaimed writer - after he awarded him 20 out of 20 for a piece of creative writing homework when he was 16. Mick, whose novel The Underground Man has just been released in paperback, has revealed that he wasn't always the best of pupils.

The 37-year-old, who grew up in Great Harwood, said school was "alien and boring" and described himself as an "exceptionally poor student."

But he singled out Eric, who went on to become the school's head teacher before retiring in 1996, as the man who made the difference.

"School felt like a prison sentence. I would live for break times when I could have a cigarette.

"To put it politely I was a bit of an under-achiever. But my English teacher, Eric Whittle, made a real difference. He was a real hero, a top man," he said.

And the former teacher, who lives in Higher Walton, said he was "very thrilled" by Mick's success and was looking forward to his second book.

"He has tremendous skill and to think I have helped a little is marvellous," he said.

"He harboured ideas of being a journalist, but I told him to be careful! But he was determined to become a writer.

"I always told my pupils, if they had a dream, to try and make it come true. And he has!" After leaving Great Harwood, where he lived in Allsprings Drive, Mick toured Europe and America with the rock band, The Screaming Ab Dabs, before taking up a writing course at the University of East Anglia run by author Malcolm Bradbury.

And he may have missed out on the £20,000 Booker Prize, but he did get to rub shoulders with the likes of Salman Rushdie at an awards ceremony in London attended by the glitterati of the publishing world.

"Rushdie embraced me as if I was an old friend. He was genuinely friendly and enthusiastic.

"The event was attended by all kinds of VIPs, actors and politicians. It was certainly a weird and wonderful experience," he said.

Mick now lives in Brighton, where he divides his time between writing novels and scripting and directing documentary films.

But he can be spotted in the North-West at Waterstone's bookshop in Deansgate, Manchester, on January 20 at 7pm, where he will read from The Underground Man. And he had this advice for budding East Lancashire authors looking to follow in his footsteps: "Carry on. Be absolutely bloody-minded and you will get there!"

The Underground Man is based on the life of the eccentric Duke of Portland, who was obsessed with tunnels and dug an elaborate series of them around his Nottinghamshire estate.

It is published by Picador, price £6.99.

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