Sheila, 55, in £300,000 deal for debut book

Sheila Quigley was astounded when, after a lifetime of dreaming and story-telling, her big break came at the age of 55.

She has now secured overnight riches which will ease the burden of being moved out of the home she has lived in for the past 30 years,

Her council house, on the Homelands estate, in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, is to be demolished next year to make way for a development.

Ms Quigley, her son, Michael, and two dogs, were to be re-homed in a new council house nearby.

But after her astonishing literary windfall, she is reviewing her options.

The publishing firm Random House is hailing her novel, Run For Home, as one of its most exciting debut novels.

The deal for a follow-up is already signed and Ms Quigley is working on the third in a gritty series based around gangland culture in the North-East.

To Ms Quigley it is the culmination of a dream which began as a nine-year-old at Silksworth Primary School, Sunderland.

She said: "I have eight grandchildren and four children and we cannot wait to enjoy a holiday in the sun in Florida.

"I was always a daydreamer at school, I hated maths and science and subjects like that, and I was only interested in English and history. From the age of nine, I loved to tell my stories."

A fan of fantasy novels such as Lord of the Rings, Ms Quigley said her stories always involved elves, fairies and mystical creatures, and her classmates would sit transfixed.

She added: "As a child, I was never one for the television, instead I would be a compulsive reader of the books my mam bought me every week."

But dreams of taking her writing further were stalled when, at the age of 11, she failed her 11-plus and left school at 15 with no qualifications.

She worked as a machinist for three years before leaving to start a family with her husband, from whom she is divorced.

Her first daughter, Dawn, 35, was born soon after leaving her job and was followed by Janine, 33, Diane, 31 and Michael, 23.