AN incident with the police while wearing a Kermit the frog onesie and an altercation with a mannequin in Swindon’s M&S are just some of the real-life experiences immortalised on the pages of indie author CJ Morrow’s latest book.

And readers across the world can’t seem to get enough of Blame It On The Onesie – a romantic comedy about work, water and wine - as it climbs further up the charts of online retailer Amazon, pushing past international bestsellers like Helen Fielding and Caitlin Moran.

But the novel’s success came as a shock to the author, who published the book on Amazon just before she went on holiday at the end of June and didn’t think too much about it while lounging in the sun.

This was the Swindon author’s third book and sales on her previous two had been regular, if modest.

But upon her return she was surprised to see it was climbing the Amazon sales charts and making quite the impact on the UK humour chart in particular.

She said: “I’m tremendously excited about the success of the book.

“It has taken on a life of its own since its release at the end of June and seems to have surged in popularity in the last few weeks.

“I never imagined for a moment that it would end up charting above international bestsellers like Helen Fielding’s latest Bridget Jones book and Caitlin Moran.

“It reached number one in humour on Amazon UK – it’s just incredible; there are a few million books on Amazon.”

The book is a romantic comedy focusing on heroine Ella and the trials and tribulations of her everyday life as she negotiates a day job at the office and her feeling of despair when her new manager brings in ‘creative’ initiatives such as Pink Day and Think Day.

Unrequited love, an amorous neighbour, a run-down thatched cottage and a Kermit the Frog onesie are all thrown into the mix to bring CJ’s creation to life.

She said she was particularly delighted, because as an independent author, she doesn’t have the support of a big publishing house behind her, or an advertising budget.

She said: “I am very grateful for the help of family and friends who will edit, proof read and create covers – the latest was created by my daughter with a local artist who is also a teacher.”

But writing fiction is not the author’s only occupation, as she works full time in an office – nothing like the one Ella works in she hastens to add – and writes for an hour every evening.

Her first two books - The Finder and The Illusionist – supernatural/fantasy mysteries, are part of a series and were published in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

She said: “I thought I’d write in a different genre, something a little lighter than my other books – there are murders and attempted murders in The Illusionist.

“I like comedy and I love a rom-com and a happy ending and I really enjoyed writing Blame It On The Onesie.

“Some of the situations, for example when Ella is stopped by the police while driving – and wearing the frog onesie – were inspired by real life, similarly the instance where Ella falls over a mannequin in a shop – it happened in Swindon M&S in real life.

“I can’t name names but those people know who they are.”

She says she has plans for another rom com novel and has already started working on the plot, which is likely to feature her work again, as having worked in many offices in Swindon she has collected numerous comical situations that are too good not to share.

Blame It On The Onesie is available as an ebook for 99p on Amazon, iBooks and in paperback on Amazon for £7.99.

It can be found at www.

amazon.co.uk/ /dp/ B010K7ZIJK.