A RETIRING vicar had a unexpected late career change when a book about his time with the church became a hit.

Father Martin Flatman was about to retire from his role as Parish Priest in Eynsham a couple of years ago, when a few of his congregation asked if he would write some of his sermons down in a book before he left, as they enjoyed them so much.

The 69-year-old said: "I thought, 'I can't do that'. But then someone came to me and said why didn't I put a lot of the material from the sermons in a story of my life to make it more interesting.

"So I thought that sounded like a good idea."

The self-published 120-page book, entitled 'Where are you going? A doubter's path to the Catholic Priesthood', describes how Father Martin moved from a childhood in an agnostic family to Christian belief, astonished himself by becoming a vicar, and even more so when he became a Catholic priest.

For many years during the 1980s and early 1990s, he was the vicar on Cowley Road, the Catholic chaplain of Oxford Brookes University, and latterly the priest for Eynsham, a role in which he stayed for 10 years.

Following retirement, he now helps out with work at St Peter's Church where he is needed.

Not expecting the book to be as big a hit as it was, Father Martin said his home has turned into a "mini Amazon warehouse" as requests for his novel come in thick and fast from all over Oxfordshire. The vicar printed 100 copies, at £4 each, at the start of last weekend and had sold out by Monday morning.

He said: "I felt a funny mixture of 'oh dear, what are they going to think of it?' to 'thank goodness it's all over'.

"But people are responding now saying they really enjoyed reading it. I actually had someone reply to say they must come and talk to me about prayer, which I thought was really good.

"Someone else said they had never thought of yoga as a way to mediate but now they were going to.

"A lot of my former students have asked for it, from Oxford Brookes."

Father Martin lives in Hazeldene Close, Eynsham with wife of 48 years Frances.

The couple have two sons, Sam, 43, and Joe, 40, and three grandchildren, Gui, 17, Aure, 12, and Zoe, three.

The vicar is now looking to print more copies of his book for anyone else who wishes to purchase a copy. It can be bought from him for £4, or £6 by post, by emailing frmartinflatman@gmail.com. It is also available on Kindle.