THE astonishing success of vicar Graham Taylor's debut book is continuing with the original manuscript on the market for £250,000.

Shadowmancer, a children's tale of 18th Century sorcery, has been one of the publishing sensations of the year, rivalling the latest Harry Potter novel.

Earlier this week it was revealed that Mr Taylor, the vicar of Cloughton, near Scarborough, had received a $500,000 advance from a US publishing house.

Yesterday, it emerged that the dog-eared pages of the original manuscript, complete with doodles, spelling mistakes and even different characters, is being offered on the Internet for £250,000.

"It's madness," said Mr Taylor, a father-of-three who had to sell his motorbike to raise the money to publish the book himself.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard about it but apparently there are people seriously interested in buying it."

It is being sold by a book dealer who realised the book's potential when it was first published and bought as many first editions as he could. Some of these are now on sale at £3,000.

The dealer contacted Mr Taylor, a former policeman, about the manuscript and he agreed to let him sell it.

"There are lots of changes between the original manuscript and the finished book. Some of the names were changed and bits of it were altered so it's not quite the same thing," said Mr Taylor.

"I was amazed when I heard what it had been valued at and it certainly adds fuel to the fire surrounding the book."

Mr Taylor will receive a percentage of whatever the manuscript sells for. Given the fast rising popularity of his book on the Internet the figure might even go up.

The success is only likely to increase because the rights to Shadowmancer are in the process of being sold to publishers in the book-hungry countries of Japan, Germany and Spain.

The book is published in this country by Faber and Faber and is riding high in the best-seller lists after selling more than 80,000 copies in only four weeks.