HOUSWIFE Dorothy Race of Hanley Swan, near Malvern, has published her first children’s book.

It’s called Hello Little Snail and she wrote it after seeing a snail in her garden and wondering what it was like to be one.

Mrs Race said: “It’s really about bullying and getting the message across that bullying is never right.”

Her hero encounters the bullying Mr Gardener, but Snail’s friends Timothy, Scarlet the ladybird and Henry the spider step in to save the day.

“Mr Gardener threatens Snail with his big boots, but Snail’s friends teach Mr Gardener what it’s like to be bullied,” added Mrs Race.

Formerly a partner in an engineering business, and more recently an administrator in Worcestershire County Council’s schools inspectorate, Mrs Race wrote the story in verse and was advised by enthusiastic friends and family members to get it published.

She found illustrator Peter Scott to provide the distinctive drawings and had it printed by Barnards Green-based Aldine Print.

Mrs Race has already tested the book on children at a local primary school, who responded positively, and she hopes to be invited to other schools to read her story.