Visits to Hucknall cafe inspires Nottinghamshire man to become a children's author

Keith Cutts, 71, from Rise Park, has just published his first book, called Sweet Enough – under the pen name Cutzy – through Austin Macauley, after creating characters and stories in his head while regularly visiting The Sweet Cafe on High Street in Hucknall.

Keith said: “Me and my wife used to go in the Sweet Cafe regularly several years ago and they’ve always had jars of sweets in there, which is what got me thinking about the stories.

"Things unfortunately took a turn for the worse and my wife ended up in hospital after suffering a couple of strokes.

"I kept going into the cafe on Saturdays for a coffee and then I started getting the ideas for these stories and and I made notes on my phone.

"I think it was Christmas Eve in 2017, I was sat outside the stroke unit at the hospital with my daughter waiting to be picked up and I said to her that I toyed with the idea of writing a story and showed her the notes on my phone and she said it sounded amazing.

"So I started testing the story out on my two grandchildren, Ruby and Lily, and they loved it and my daughter said I should send it off to a publisher.

"Well I hadn’t got a clue about that, but I looked into it and sent it off to Austin Macauley, never expecting to hear anything back.

"But instead, they sent me a letter back saying they really loved it and I was amazed.”

Sadly, Keith’s wife died last year but the book Keith has written is a lasting tribute to her memory.

Keith’s story is about a scientist, Professor Peardrop, who used to work in the science lab at the university, and who has developed a special formula to bring sweets to life.

When he received the first copies of the book, he presented one to The Sweet Cafe, where staff were delighted to receive it.

And having got the taste for writing, Keith has wasted no time in creating more stories for children, aiming mainly at the nine to 11-years-old age category.

He continued: “I don’t know where this has all come from, but I’ve written the sequel to Sweet Enough, which is called Sweet Enough: The Continental Twist, and a third part too, although I haven’t sent them off yet.

"I’ve just taken to writing now, I’ve written another book called Henrietta Harbottle’s Hash Brown Adventures and another book about a little lad called Charlie which I haven’t got a title for yet.

“But I’m really pleased with myself because I never thought I would do it.

"My granddaughter Ruby is now 14 and she did the drawings for the book.

"She’s very good at drawing and pictures, she’s done a nice drawing of the Queen too and I told her she should send it to the new king.

“I said to her, ‘send that to Charlie!’, so she has.”