YOUNG aspiring writers and artists in Swindon have created an illustrated choose-your-own adventure book while in lockdown.

The A Moral Paradox project grew from a workshop at Lydiard Park Academy, is led by community arts and education company Digital Writes and has so far been funded by the Arts Council England.

One of the authors from Puffin's Fighting Fantasy series, Keith P Phillips, is tutoring the creative collaboration.

He said: “We have been running workshops in storytelling, creative writing, and illustration over Zoom and sharing work through Discord. The students have produced some amazing work. I mean, really amazing. As good as anything from the series. They really deserve to get published.”

Lauren is one of the participants. She said: "We already write and draw things, but nothing comes out of it. It would be cool to see our book in the library and see other people enjoying what we’ve made.

"Without this, we wouldn't have had a chance to be part of producing a full sized book.”

The work has grown to such epic proportions that it will need an extra four months and £3,000 to complete. A crowdfunding campaign has almost reached that total but ends very soon.

The additional funding will allow Digital Writes to continue offering workshops and invite more young people to participate in creative collaboration.

The work will then be collated together into a final product of an interactive gamebook, which has had a bit of a resurgence lately following new titles by Charlie Higson and Rhianna Pratchett.

Swindon visual artist, Keira Georgeson said: "Our young writers and artists are proper authors writing a proper book. We want them to feel the excitement of going into a public library and seeing their book on the shelf.

"But we’re eager to invite everyone to join. All you need is your imagination and a love of fantasy.”

Ms Urquhart from Lydiard Park Academy said: “Our students have had a brilliant experience, growing in creative confidence and developing their social and communication skills as well as gaining a wealth of cutting-edge technical expertise. Please support this latest fantastic creation."

The final work will be published in print format and available to buy through Amazon as well as borrowed from secondary school and public libraries.

As a text-based interactive game in app form, it will be available for download from all the videogame app stores.

To get involved and secure a place on this programme, look for Digital Writes on social media.