IMAGINE if conflicts raging in the war-torn Middle East were suddenly brought much closer to home.

That’s the idea at the heart of Nathan Reade’s first novel, Through Adversity, which sees the Islamic State occupy Swindon and Oxfordshire as well as the military’s efforts to fight back and overthrow the terrorist group.

Nathan said: “It was written to make people understand and sympathise more with what’s happening in Iraq and Syria and places like that.

“It’s become so commonplace that it’s easy to forget that there are real people suffering because of these attacks every day.

“The atrocities in the book are all based on real events which I’ve reimagined and transposed to England - for example, the County Ground and its car park becomes a giant refugee camp.

“A lot of the fighting happens in rural areas of the county, though Wanborough, Faringdon and RAF Brize Norton all feature in it at some point.

“I decided to set it around Swindon because it’s where I live and work, I know it well, and I’d hate for something horrible to happen here.”

After writing, rewriting, editing and self-publishing the book over the course of three-and-a-half years, the design engineer launched the book in Faringdon.

Nathan added: “I’ve always had a passion for writing and this was the first idea to make it a full novel. It’s had the impact that I wanted it to have, people say it’s made them think and empathise more with refugees and asylum seekers.

“The book tackles quite a controversial subject and some people have hated the idea, but I’ve got some good feedback from people I know and from online reviewers, which is nice.

“I was concerned that a book based entirely around the human impact of war was likely to appeal only to those who are already aware of the problems, so I went with this alternate-history military fiction approach.

“It seemed like a great way to put forward the truth of what’s happening over there, because if it were happening here we’d take it much more seriously.. It’s not all doom and gloom - the local population rise up and defeat their oppressors in the end, and I’ve got sequel ideas.”