WEREWOLVES and government conspiracies feature in the first novel by Swindon writer Mark Anthony Pritchard.

The tale follows a quiet librarian as he uncovers a world of monsters, aliens and a legendary English outlaw.

Mark, 43, of Grange Park, blogs regularly on the internet, but The Dogman Conspiracy is his first book.

He said there were many records of encounters with werewolves.

“In the UK we have a long history of dogmen. I did some research on local legends and they cropped up more than I thought.”

But he chose an ordinary man to be the hero of his novel. He explained the librarian, a man who never experienced anything interesting until he saw the face of a beast that was not supposed to exist, was based on someone he met years ago at university.

Although they had not kept in contact “I just wondered what his life would be like.”

The underlying theme was individuals versus collectivism. “I’m an anarchist,” he explained. “I don’t believe in the legitimacy of the state. I question everything and in my book I’m questioning everything.”

“But I’m not violent,” he stressed.

Just two months after starting the first chapter the book was almost finished. A month of editing and tweaking followed.

“The actual creative process went by in a blur,” he said.

Mark, who has a master’s degree in journalism, has done a range of jobs from factory worker to warehouseman, including a stint at Honda.

He said he found his degree course weighted towards PR but he was not interested in a career in the industry.

“I do jobs to pay the bills but my passion is writing,” he said.

His book is available online on Amazon and the digital library Kindle Unlimited.

He finds the digital format suits him and he believes it is the future for authors. “I see people reading on their iPhones rather than books.”

He also likes the Kindle Unlimited system where authors are paid per page read. ”The more pages people read the more you get paid, which is very democratic.

“People seem to like it, they are reading it and I’m very happy.

And he is already working on his second novel about a musician who plays black metal. “It explores what happens when you tend to dwell on the negative elements of life,” he said.