A former Ilkley teacher is spearheading the successful promotion of a leading children's book series.

Trevor Wilson, a former deputy head teacher at Westville House, Ilkley, joined author Peter J Murray in a bid to carve out a career in the tough publishing industry.

The pair gave up their jobs two and a half years ago to start their new careers writing, publishing and promoting story books for children.

Although nowhere near the multi-millionaire status of J K Rowling, they have sold more than 150,000 books and are on course for bigger worldwide sales and a film deal which could make them very rich.

Trevor, who has promoted concerts at Ilkley's King's Hall and other venues, has given that up to devote himself full-time to promoting Peter's books.

Trevor said: "We have formed our own publishing company.

"When we were with Hodder Children's Books they were reaping the rewards by getting bookshops to sell Pete's books. He only got a small percentage. So I said to him Let's try and buy back the copyright to all the books'.

"It was a huge decision which cost us nearly a six-figure sum.

"Now we have complete control over publishing, illustrations, everything.

"We can now offer very good discounts to schools and bookshops and make a very good living."

Helped by Peter's wife Kath, they present the three Mokee Joe books in schools all over the country, the Middle East, and soon the Far East and Canada.

Trevor said they have been to more than 450 schools.

Children usually respond to Peter's two-hour presentation by falling over themselves to buy the books and read them. "The whole point of what we do is to get kids fired up about reading," Trevor added.

Peter said: "My ambition when I started in 2004 was to sell 2,000 copies of Mokee Joe. We now sell between 1,000 and 2,000 a week."

On their travels to international schools in Bahrain they sold 6,000 books in 11 days.

Borders, the international bookshop, has ordered 1,200 books for a branch in Oman.

Peter and Trevor have acc-epted invitations to visit this branch and another in Dubai.

In addition to the trilogy of Mokee Joe books there are the Billy Hardacre books, Bonebreaker and Dawn Demons. Moonwailer is due out in December.

Simon Murray, one of Peter and Kath's two sons, designs the inside drawings.

He has his own book, Ickydoodah, which is selling well.

Alan Latham of Templar Films, London, has bought the option to film the three Mokee Joe books.

The budget so far is reportedly £5m.

For more about the pair's books see www.peterjmur ray.co.uk