Supermarket worker nets movie deal

A supermarket manager has fulfilled the dream of aspiring writers everywhere - not only publishing his first book, but selling it to Disney for a million dollars (€813,500).

Clive Woodall’s debut novel is published today and is set to become an animated film after the world-famous studios bought the rights.

The 46-year-old wrote One for Sorrow, Two for Joy as a bedtime story for his young sons after his wife left 11 years ago, but it was when his second wife, Trish, passed it to colleagues at Barclays that his luck changed.

Bank manager Barrie Young passed it to a client, filmmaker Franc Roddam, who loved it so much he bought the rights, published it himself, used his contacts in the film world and clinched the Disney deal.