A PROUD Rubery pensioner had a spring in his step this week when he scooped a top literary award.

Michael Richardson, the author of The Pig Bin, collected the Sagittarius Prize 2001 award, presented at the Society of Authors' annual party this month.

This prestigious prize was awarded for a first published novel by an author over the age of 60.

Published last year by Tindall Street Press, which wants to bring greater recognition of regional, contemporary fiction to a national readership, The Pig Bin is a wartime comedy set in Birmingham.

Private Eye

But it is not the only string to Mr Richardson's bow.

Since retiring as head of art at Lordswood Girls School, in Birmingham, he has written poetry, essays and short stories published in Private Eye and the Sunday Times, before gaining his big break with The Pig Bin.

He is also a widely exhibited landscape artist and has done voluntary work in a Romanian orphanage and campaigned to preserve the character of local pubs.

The 68-year-old, of Meadowfield Road, was clearly delighted with his novel's success.

He said: "I am over the moon.

"I didn't believe it at first. I thought they had made a mistake and it wasn't until I received the publisher's letter that I actually believed it was true."

In fact he was so happy with the award that he is now approaching his second novel, Sychronicity, with even more enthusiasm.

He added: "It is based on the theory that coincidences don't simply occur and there is pre-ordaned pattern, part of a plan, of much greater significance."