A POPULAR children’s author is to stop writing to care for his seriously ill daughter.

Graham Taylor, who writes under the name GP Taylor, is best known for his Shadowmancer books, which are bestsellers around the world.

But now the former North Yorkshire police officer and retired clergyman will quit writing to focus on daughter Lydia, 11, who is fighting Crohn’s disease.

She was diagnosed with the incurable bowel illness in January and has deteriorated rapidly, spending the past 25 days in hospital in a critical condition with pneumonia and inflammation of the brain.

She has also suffered several seizures and has undergone eight operations in the past week.

A month ago, Mr Taylor, 51, of Cloughton, Scarborough, underwent major heart surgery at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle.

He said: “I have three reasons for giving up writing – my own health, my daughter’s health and the fact that I have become very jaded with the whole bookselling thing.

“Last Sunday I was fearful that my daughter would die, so I want to devote my time to her to help her recover.”

Mr Taylor, who spent four years as a police officer in Northallerton, visits more than 200 schools a year to encourage children to read, something he also plans to give up.

Mr Taylor has received hundreds of messages of support from people around the world and said: “The support from the people of North Yorkshire and the North has been amazing, so I would like to thank everyone who has left a message.”

He also praised the doctors and nurses at the Hull Royal Infirmary for their “fantastic”

care of his daughter and the rest of his family over the past four weeks.

Mr Taylor has a contract to complete four more books before he can retire, a series called the Vampire Quartet, which will be based in Whitby.