AUTHOR James Gurbutt is passionate about keeping the character Jack Frost alive.

James, along with fellow writer Henry Sutton, have teamed up to write a prequel to the best selling Frost books, by RD Wingfield.

Born in Orsett, James, 42, grew up in Billericay attending the Mayflower School.

He says: “I didn’t do particularly well at school, so I ended up going to night school to study accountancy.”

That’s how he got a job in publishing, in the accounts department of Random House, before moving into editorial eight years ago.

Now living just outside Coggeshall, he’s with Constable, one of the oldest publishers in the country, responsible for the publication of such works as Dracula, and co-incidently RD Wingfield’s original publisher.

Instead of editing books, he’s turned to writing them.

Published by Bantam Press, his debut novel is entitled First Frost, and is the first of two prequels to the bestselling Frost series.

They are written under the name of James Henry, which is a pseudonym for James, and Henry Sutton, who is the author of six previous novels and is the books editor for the Daily Mirror.

James adds: “I’m a huge fan of the television show and the books.

“Also Wingfield lived in that area between Billericay and Basildon, close to where I grew up. The town of Denton is most likely based on Basildon, so there are a lot of connections.

“Writing with Henry had its challenges and we didn’t always agree on what way the book should go. But actually that process has turned out rather well with a really good book.”