MIXING personal experience with a dash of fiction has proved the perfect literary cocktail for one Somerset author.

First time novelist, Hugh Allen from Wiveliscombe, has seen what he described as ‘an adventure’ story hit the bookshelves.

The 70-year-old has written a ripping yarn which is set each side of the Berlin Wall and tells the tale of two individuals coped with the experience of living in not only a split city but a divided country.

Hugh said: “I grew up in Berlin until I was 11-years-old.

"So I have used my childhood memories of living in West Berlin. I had a good East German friend whose experiences I use and there was also an East German farmer and his wife.

“It was a case of talking and listening to these people and making a note of their first hand experiences.

"You can go to Berlin and see the trail of dashes on the floor which go through the city and show you where the wall used to be.

“I was in Berlin as my father worked for the security services in the Control Commission for Germany.

"We lived there before the wall was built but I went back after it had been built.

“I went over to East Berlin and you could look in the shop windows and see food but if you went into the store or shop there was very little at all. It was giving the impression everything was working.

"When I saw East Germany it looked grey, there was no colour in the streets, even the people looked grey.

“There was a sense of fear. Fear of not knowing who your friends were, who you could talk to and who would not inform on you to the authorities.”

Hugh felt pleased to have written his novel but said it was an anti-climax.

This he felt was as he had finished the story and it was over.

But he was already thinking about a sequel and had put together some notes for the new book.

Through the Wall by Hugh Allen is published by Austin Macauley and costs £6.99.