A BUDDING young author from Stroud has had his first book sold in countries around the world.

Archie Lewis, 8, who attends Gastrells Community Primary School, penned his first book The Lion Bird as part of a Radio 2 writing challenge.

The 16 page children’s book proved to be a big success where it was launched back at Easter and was bought in places as diverse as Norway, Canada, Argentina and the USA.

Archie raised £344 from the sales and will be donating the proceeds to his two favourite charities; WWF and Cancer Research UK.

His mum Tracey, said: “I’m, so proud of Archie, he’s been absolutely amazing.

“The support has been amazing so thank you to everyone who bought the book.

“Originally it was only on sale for £1 – but a lot of the people in the community who bought it wanted to pay more.

“We originally had 150 copies printed and Archie sold out of them really quickly.”

The book was published for free by James & Owen, based in London Road, Stroud.

It tells the story of a boy and his cat who save some beautiful birds from a 'horrid' lady.

Archie was encouraged to write the book by the Beavers group, based in Rodborough, for the Radio 2 500 Words challenge, launched on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show.

Anybody interested in buying a copy of Archie's book can email Tracey on tracey.poppet@googlemail.com