AN ARCHAEOLOGIST has launched a one-man campaign to win a forgotten novel, said to be the first ever written in English, and its star, dubbed 'the Harry Potter of the 16th century', their rightful place in literature’s all-time hall of fame.

History buff Jon Welsh says Dobson’s Dry Bobs should be central to the story of Durham – and hopes the pioneering 1607 work and its central character will be immortalised on the small screen in a major TV series.

“It’s a great story. I can’t believe it doesn't have the recognition it deserves. I’d never heard of it,” Mr Welsh said.

“It should be part of the story of Durham – one of the things people think of when they think of Durham.”

The novel pre-dates literary greats The Pilgrim’s Progress and Robinson Crusoe and came just two years after the first volume of Don Quixote, said to be the world’s first modern novel, was published.

But it has been largely forgotten and only two original copies survive – one at Trinity College, Cambridge and the other at the Folger Shakespeare Library, in Washington DC, USA.

The story follows the life of George Dobson, a country boy who becomes a Durham Cathedral chorister but spends much of time pulling Billy Bunter-style pranks, or dry bobs, on his classmates and schoolmasters.

In one episode, he locks a boy in a candle cupboard at the cathedral, a filming location for the first two Harry Potter movies. In another, he dresses as a noble and cons a Witton Gilbert landlady out of a feast of fine food and drink.

Later in life, Dobson narrowly avoids the death penalty and finally ends up back in Durham as a priest.

Its author is anonymous, although it is widely thought to be the real George Dobson, who according to cathedral records was a chorister in the 1550s, given its accurate descriptions of the cathedral, the city and the other choristers at the time.

Mr Welsh, of AAG Archaeology, rediscovered the book while producing a heritage statement for some farm buildings in Neville’s Cross which are a location for one of Dobson’s adventures.

“As an archaeologist the book is a treasure trove of minute information about daily life in Elizabethan England,” he said.

“It mentions individual shops in Durham and the characters that ran them and even how the school got the birch rods it used to discipline unruly pupils.

“The modern style the book is written in really lets the reader get close to the character and understand what was going through his head.

“In many ways it is like Harry Pottery, particularly the way it gets more serious as the book goes on and the main character gets older.

“Although Dobson is a bit of a villain, I do have some sympathy for him as I remember what it was like coming to Durham University years ago to study archaeology from a council estate comprehensive school background.

“Dobson’s story is long overdue being brought to a wider audience. It hasn’t been in print since an academic edition in 1955.”