retailing tycoon David Jones, who was born and brought up in Malvern, has just brought out his autobiography

Next To Me covers both his meteoric business career and his struggle with Parkinson's disease.

The book comes with an endorsement from Hollywood superstar Michael J Fox, of Back to the Future fame, who also has Parkinson's.

"David Jones's story offers anyone living with Parkinson's the optimism and hope that great achievements are still possible," says the actor.

The book gives a detailed account of how he took the ailing Next retail chain of the late 1980s, when it was nearly bankrupt, and turned it into a multi-billion pound success story.

It also tells of his childhood in Malvern Link, where he grew up in a semi-detached cottage in Goodson Road. Mr Jones went to school at St Matthias' CE Primary School, where he remembers headmaster Mr Lindsey.

"It is to him I owe my sharp eye for numbers," he says. "These sessions helped me develop an aptitude for figures that would remain with me for life."

Mr Jones went on to the King's School, Worcester, and joined Kays as a 17-year-old clerk, making his first step into the world of retailing. Within ten years, he was the company's finance director.

The book also describes how he had dealt with his Parkinson's, which was first diagnosed in 1982. It is published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing, at £18. All royalties go to The Cure Parkinson's Trust.