A FORMER head of Oakbank School has published his third novel Trial Balance.

John Roberts said all four main characters in his story were born in Keighley.

John, aged 75, said: “I liked the idea of two grey-haired vigilantes taking the law into their own hands to make a stand against the unfair society that is the UK today.”

In the novel, available to buy from Amazon, Jimmy and Arthur, aged 63, are great friends. Jimmy is a self-employed builder instilled with socialist ideas by his father. Arthur is a local planning officer who has witnessed some shady deals.

John said: “I invented a banker, Buck Donaldson, one of those greedy and irresponsible bankers who caused the great financial crash of 2008 from which we’re still suffering.

“His wealth and lifestyle are unaffected and this maddens Jimmy and Arthur. They decide to kidnap him and hold him at an isolated farm on the moors between Oxenhope and Hebden Bridge.”

The story tells of what happens after the kidnap together with colourful flashbacks to the characters’ early lives.

The story takes place between 1995 and 2011 with scenes in Keighley, Grassington, the moors above Leeming Reservoir, and Hebden Bridge.

John said: “Readers might have some fun identifying exactly where they take place. The story ends at Ponden Clough. There’s a bit of witchcraft in Haworth and illegal gun-running in Africa. I was fun researching and writing it. I suppose it’s a story about friendship, love and protest.”

John is currently revising his next novel, Prey, about a terrorist attack in the north of England, and researching a novel about the English Civil War.

All the proceeds of the first hundred copies of Trial Balance will go to Manorlands. Email john@johnrob.f9.co.uk or visit Amazon to buy a copy.