From factory to fiction success (From The Oxford Times)

From factory to fiction success

2:00pm Thursday 24th May 2012 in Abingdon

Alcan factory worker Dominic James has seen his career in publishing flourish since being made redundant.

He was among workers who lost their jobs at the Banbury aluminium factory in 2007.

His first book, The Reiki Man, was published by John Hunt Publishing last year and the sequel, Fear of the Fathers, will be launched on Saturday at Waterstones in Banbury.

The Southam Road factory employed 3,000 people and produced 60 per cent of metal for planes during the early years of the Second World War. But production dwindled and it is being redeveloped as an industrial estate.

Mr James, 40, from Banbury, said: “When I was made redundant, it was very difficult, but an opportunity too. I had been stagnating there too long.”

Inspired by his passion for fiction, Mr James devised a story of the global hunt for a box of mankind’s secrets.

He said: “I had to keep plugging. After 60 rejections I got taken on.

“You have to keep going in the darkest hours.”