COMING under fire in the line of duty led to Swindon policeman Carl Rosier-Jones going on a journey back to the era of the cave man.

This week he has celebrated the publication of his first self-help book – personally delivering a signed copy to his first customer, who by a twist of good luck happened to live in Swindon too.

The Caveman Principles: Get Rid of Everyday Stress and Enjoy Mammoth Success is Carl’s first foray onto bookshelves after his research into stress piqued the interest of publishers.

And despite confessing to “hating English lessons” during his time at school in Chippenham as a child, he this week delivered a signed copy of his book to this first customer – Swindon resident Kathy Doyle.

“It was an exceptional set of circumstances,” said Carl.

“I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to do this, but then it turned out the very first person to pre-order the book was right here in Swindon with me. I was shocked and obviously it has worked out pretty well.”

The book was born out of fairly routine job that Carl attended as a police officer in 2012, which has subsequently seen him awarded with a police bravery award.

He said: "I went to arrest somebody – a straight forward job in my eyes, but the chap I went to arrest decided he wasn’t going to be taken and pulled out a gun and shot at me six times.

“The rounds were blanks, but obviously at the time I didn’t know that, and I was stood in the middle of his living room, heard six bangs and I thought I was dead.

“It was quite a traumatic experience. After all of that something triggered and I suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I started looking around for books and information and although there was lots of information none of it talked to me, and none of it gave me a simple response to what to expect.

“Although I was able to learn many coping mechanisms there needs to be something out there to help people understand that it is a normal human experience. I thought, 'why not do it myself?'"

His research began to show that stress and fears are deeply ingrained in us from the caveman principles of fight or flight, and he has now gone on to take his research in front of scores of people as a professional speaker on stress and communication change.

“I think everyone would benefit from learning a bit about stress in a light-hearted, uncomplicated way. I thoroughly enjoy my job in both respects,” he said.

“I am doing something I feel very passionately about, writing the book and delivering my talks while still doing something responsible for society.

“I have already got it in my head that I want to write a second book, but it wasn’t until after the book was published on Monday that I allowed myself to start writing it down.

“I am just absolutely enjoying the ride at the moment and the journey it is taking me on, it has been incredible.”

The Caveman Principles: Get Rid of Everyday Stress and Enjoy Mammoth Success is out now published by Filament Publishing at £14.99 and is available from Waterstones, WH Smith and Amazon.