WARTS-AND-ALL stories of life for ordinary soldiers serving in a famous North-East regiment was launched by a best-selling local author yesterday.

Terry Deary, famous for his offbeat Horrible History books, has given his own quirky treatment to 20 stories taken from exhibits and archives at the Durham Light Infantry Museum (DLI) and Durham Art Gallery.

He was at the museum, in Durham, yesterday for a rare book-signing and to tell an eager audience of youngsters and older people a story that did not make it into the pages of the new publication, Dirty Little Imps.

Designed as part-guide and part-history book, it can be used by visitors to the DLI Museum, who can find artefacts relating to the stories dotted around the displays.

But the author said that the book should not be seen by people as an official regimental history.

He said: "It is very much a collection of stories, some strange and savage, some wacky and weird and others brave and barmy, telling of the lucky and lousy things that happened to the men who served in the DLI over 200 years.

"The research was done by the museum curator, Steve Shannon, who is the expert, and I picked it up from there.

"They reveal a lot about human nature, how people react like they do in traumatic situations.

"They are all true stories, some poignant, some tragic, others that are happier, while there is plenty of 'black humour' among them."

Apart from Mr Shannon's research, the museum's exhibition officer, Dennis Hardingham, is another local contributor because he drew all the illustrations featured in Dirty Little Imps.

Mr Deary's next publication, The Horrible History of England, the 41st in the series, will be launched next week.

So far, the first 40 have sold 16 million copies in 32 languages across the world.

* Dirty Little Imps, produced by County Durham Books, the publishing division of Durham County Council, costs £3.50 and is available from local bookshops.