A Preston dad has released a debut book inspired by his daughter.

The title of Chris Bilsborough’s book – Daddy! I Need You! – was a phrase that stuck after his daughter Lucy began to use it repeatedly at bedtime.

Chris, who has also written an unpublished story for his son Max, said: “When Lucy came along and her little personality began to develop, she coined the phrase ‘Daddy! I need you!’, normally after she’d been settled in bed and I’d just sat down for my tea.

“It’s obviously a very similar story in every household at bedtime, with children of an age where their imaginations create shapes out of shadows and monsters under the bed and will try every trick in the book to get an adult to come back to their room.

“It became her cheeky way of wrapping me around her finger – of which I still am tightly wrapped around to this day! Those four little words boomed downstairs for months to come, and one day a few lines of the book came to me so I jotted them down and laid a foundation for the book.”

While Chris – who lives in Walton le Dale and works for the NHS as a Technical Change Analyst – only wrote the book with the idea of reading it to Max and Lucy at bedtime, he was soon encouraged by others to try to get it published.

“I tried for a year or so and submitted it to various publishers but didn’t have any luck although the feedback, much to my surprise, was resoundingly positive.

“After putting it all on the back burner for a few years, I tried again last year to feed a hunch. I came across Olympia; who were accepting submissions, and sent them the story over.”

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Despite not seeing Olympia’s response in his spam email folder for over a month, Chris eventually discovered there was some good news.

“When I actually found the email and read it through, I was elated. I couldn’t believe what I was reading: ‘I’m pleased to inform you that your work has passed our initial review’.

“After over 12 months of illustrative and editorial work I recently got the thumbs up and a release date of 28 November.

“A lot of promotion is taking place by the team at Olympia, and there’s mention of library readings taking place and working with local book suppliers and media outlets.

“Right now I’m just happy that I’ve got this far with my little book and excited that it has come out just in time to be a surprise stocking filler for Lucy this Christmas.”

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For further information follow the Daddy! I Need You! Facebook page.

What do you think of Chris becoming a published author? Will you be buying the book? Let us know in the comments.