WITH his smart suit, sober tie, stern expression, Graham Thompson is every bit the picture of the boring accountant - and he's the first to admit it.

It's plain to see, but then extraordinary things lurk beneath many a thing deemed plain. In Graham's case, behind a successful number-crunching business, which employs 25 people on Teesside, lies a passion for writing, a love which is only now being fulfilled.

The 41-year-old, from Stockton, has just had his first novel published, and the subject matter couldn't be further from the traditionally dull public image of his profession. In Graham there lurk four novels - three thrillers and a comedy. The first two have already been written.

Sweet Insanity introduces the bizarre character Sam Westmain, a County Durham hairdresser who names his teddy bears after the victims of his serial murder crimes. The fast-moving plot has Serial Sam chasing a likeable witness to one of his attacks, around the streets of the North-East, and introduces readers to the disturbing workings of the psycho next door.

Real detectives, including a friend who works for Cleveland Police, have helped Graham create the scenario with chilling accuracy. He was also inspired by the work of John Douglas, the FBI agent who used psychological profiling to catch murderers in the 1980s, the man on whom the character of Jack Crawford in the Silence of the Lambs was based. And it's a formula which could also be catapulted on to the television or cinema screen.

"It's totally weird where it comes from," Graham says. "I just put pen to paper. I had one chapter in my head and it just flowed from there. You can't explain it. I researched the book like an accountant - methodically. I knew my characters, their likes and their dislikes, and three drafts later it was there. I draw my inspiration from the people around me - the hair salon is where I have my hair cut in Stockton. And my firm has 700 clients, from the rich to the less so, from the bright to the not-so-bright. I have also included little anecdotes which my friends will recognise. I write things down all the time; it could be a description of a man wearing a jacket and glasses or a phrase I like."

Graham would argue that accountancy is far from boring but understands the public might not realise this. "Writing is a huge escape from accountancy, which is part of the attraction," he says.

As a teenager, Graham wanted to be a journalist, but was put off by staff at his local newspaper, who told him to go away and get a degree. His love of Middlesbrough FC kept him close to home and he studied accountancy at Teesside Polytechnic, where he gained a distinction. He joined Benson Wood and Co in Stockton when he was 23 and qualified as an accountant in 1983, becoming a partner four years later. In 1991 his wife to be, Lesley Harrison, joined the firm. They now live in Yarm.

Graham first decided he wanted to write a novel, a thriller about a serial killer, when he was 18, but it was another 20 years before he put pen to paper. To his surprise, there were four separate offers to publish the book.

With a successful business to head and regular 50 to 60-hour weeks, writing tends to take place late at night - no problem for a self-confessed insomniac. But the bulk of the work is done alone on holiday aboard. "Two lonely writing weeks, one in Nice and one in Lanzarote, made great inroads. I would get up at 6am and write until 10pm." And there's time at weekends now he has given up supporting Middlesbrough FC after 31 years on the terraces.

Married to his "little lobster", Lesley - according to Phoebe in Friends, their favourite programme, they mate for life - they have a six-year-old daughter Evie and the whole-hearted support of their families and friends.

And he has high hopes that his first novel could eventually find its way on to the screen.

"I approached Robson Green, who would be just right for the killer in the book, and he sent it to a production company," he recalls, full of enthusiasm. "They said it needed to be converted into a screenplay. So a local playwright and close friend, who deals with major directors and who has two months off before going to Broadway, is working on it. That could open up some interesting avenues and if I could sell the film rights, that is when I give up the day job."

One down, one written (Order of Innocence) and the third (an Ealing-styling classic comedy) under way, he admits he's on a bit of a roll. He doesn't expect to make any money out of writing books but may carry one beyond the four he believed he had in him when he was 18. "I'm a boring accountant," says Graham, "who just fancies writing."

* Sweet Insanity (Minerva Press, £14.99)