VICARS' wives frequently make an appearance in fiction - but one local vicar's wife has gone one better and written a novel herself.

Pamela "Pixie" Mason, who is married to the Rev Ambrose Mason, vicar of St Nicholas Church, Grosmont, has recently published her first novel, Puppet Maker.

In it, she tells the story of a Latvian doctor returning to the country of his birth 10 years after its independence from Soviet occupation and his search for the father he never knew and who he believes was deported to Siberia in 1941.

Pixie, who is a pharmaceutical journalist, has her husband to thank for the subject matter of Puppet Maker.

"Had it not been for Ambrose's job as Director of Ministry for the Diocese in Europe, I would never have made the first of many visits to Latvia.

"I've had lots of very positive reaction to the book from friends in Latvia," says Pixie.

"And I'm thrilled that one of Riga's biggest bookstore chains is stocking it. I'm hoping, too, that Puppet Maker might one day also be translated into Latvian."

Having written and published her first novel, Pixie is already thinking about the second.

"Ambrose has suggested I write a fictional history of Riga from the 13th century," she says.

"I do know it will certainly be set in Latvia again."

Puppet Maker is available, priced £8.50, from www.amazon.co.uk