A WRITER with a love for heavy metal music and tattoos - but is also a fan of Bridget Jones - is hoping to make his mark in the chick-lit world.

Chris Brown, 40, is a design manager for a fire prevention company by day, but after being told he had had a minor stroke last year he decided to make more time for his writing hobby.

Mr Brown, from Richmond, North Yorkshire,  said: “Last November I had this episode at home where I lost feeling in the left side of my body – it was more like an odd sensation that anything frightening but I want to the doctor when it didn’t go away after a couple of days.”

His doctor told him it could have been a stroke and further tests confirmed he had suffered from a bleed on the brain and a minor stroke, leaving him in James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough for a week.

He said: “I struggled to take it very seriously because I felt fine – but a doctor told me that one in three people do not survive what happened to me and that really made it hit home.”

Mr Brown, husband to Emma and father to Kerris and Dexter, decided to make changes to his lifestyle, and part of that was to take time out for his love of writing.

“I have had a couple of poems published in an anthology in the past so I thought I would try writing short stories,” he said.

“I joined a writing group and was given a lot of encouragement to keep writing when I started on the idea for a love-triangle erotic fiction novel – One Man to Love, One Man to Live.

“People are often surprised about my genre choice when they meet me because I am a big guy with long hair, tattoos and I love heavy metal music – but I also enjoy a bit of Bridget Jones.”

The booked was launched in August by Chiado Publishing and Mr Brown is currently working on the next instalment as well as some moral-led stories about vampires for children.

Mr Brown added: “I don’t intend to leave my day job because I want to keep writing as a hobby rather than something I am forced to do – but it hasn’t really sunk in yet that I am a published novelist.”