Fiona McIntosh's childhood dreams have been turned into a best-selling trilogy of books.

As a schoolgirl, Fiona loved fairy stories. She visited castles all over Sussex, which became fodder for her fertile imagination and the fantasy characters she created in her head.

Three decades later, on the other side of the world, her books Betrayal and Resurrection are already out and she is just putting the finishing touches to the third, Destiny.

Fiona believes her childhood in Brighton and Hove was the inspiration for her books with their background of kings, castles and wizards.

Now living in Adelaide, Australia, with husband Ian and twin sons Jack and Will, she has had rave reviews for her work, which was first published last year.

However, it took 30 years and an enthusiastic creative writing tutor to help put her ideas down on paper.

Fiona, whose maiden name was Richards, said: "I have wanted to write books all my life. I just wish I had trusted my instincts and given it a shot earlier. The tutor made me realise I was already a writer, I just hadn't written the book inside."

Fiona's addiction to fantasy was evident from an early age.

She said: "I used to invent wild, make-believe, adventure stories and make my cousins play all these characters I had devised.

"I could visualise the scenery and they would just have to trust my imagination that a chair was a mountain range, a piece of carpet the sea or a tree a castle."

Teachers at Hove County Grammar School despaired of the girl who read nothing but fairy stories.

Fiona said: "It was all hopeless once I had stepped through CS Lewis's 'wardrobe'. I only wanted fantasy."

She describes her childhood in Brighton and Hove as "blissfully happy".

She said: "We lived on the seafront in Brunswick Terrace until I was 11 and then moved to Hangleton, where I desperately missed the promenade and the sounds of the sea.

"Brighton was a trendy place in the late Seventies - arguably the hottest spot outside of London for great shopping and nightclubs. It was a fantastically groovy town to be a teenager in. I had a Saturday job in the excruciatingly trendy Bus Stop in Duke Street."

She says her books have undoubtedly been influenced by the sights and experiences from her childhood.

"The castles definitely played a part, along with the South Downs. The exquisite Sussex countryside provides perfect settings for my books."

Fiona's childhood in Sussex was interrupted when her father was posted to work in the Gold Mines of Ghana, West Africa. That experience gave her a taste for travel and adventure.

After a spell working for a PR firm in London, she set off on her travels and arrived in Sydney at the age of 20.

She later moved to Alice Springs and met Ian, who ran a travel magazine.

Their boys are now 11 and are their mother's greatest fans and critics.

She said: "Jack makes excellent suggestions for improvements. Will is more interested in the actual writing and shows some early knack for it."

Although she loves life in Adelaide, she still misses England.

She said: "More than anything I miss its greenness. I desperately miss the pubs, Sainsbury's and Cadbury's chocolate.

"I constantly consider moving the family back to England for a year to do some research and absorb the history, those landscapes and dialects. I just might do it one day too."

Fiona hopes her books will be on sale in Britain in the next year.

For details, visit her web site at: www.fionamcintosh.