IT looks like being one of the literary events of the year in York, eclipsed only by publication of the final adventures of a certain boy wizard, perhaps.

Borders bookshop is expecting hundreds of people to turn up for the launch of Tricia Walker's debut novel Benedict's Brother on Thursday.

Tricia, who is the daughter of North Yorkshire writer Peter Walker, aka Heartbeat author Nicholas Rhea, originally wrote her novel eight years ago.

She had inherited some money in her uncle's will, and used it to travel half way round the world to visit her brother, a Buddhist monk in Thailand she hadn't seen for years.

That inspired her to write Benedict's Brother, a novel about a woman who journeys to meet her long-lost brother, who is - surprise, surprise - a Buddhist monk in Thailand. She also finds out about her uncle's past as a Japanese prisoner of war.

The novel failed to set the literary world alight and was rejected by publishers. Until last August, when Tricia released it as a blog. It then attracted worldwide interest, and Coppice Publishing swooped to bring it out in book form.

The book will be officially launched at Borders on Thursday. There will be a party, open to the public, that will feature live jazz renditions of some of the music featured in the book, and the author will sign copies on the night.

"We've had some pretty big names doing signings here," said Tom Smith, marketing and events supervisor at the York store. "But apart from Harry Potter coming out in July, we have nothing bigger than this planned for the rest of the year."

Sounds like one not to be missed.

The Benedict's Brother launch party is at Borders in Davygate next Thursday from 6pm to 8pm. Entry is free.

  • IF YOU'RE not interested in a first novel by the daughter of Heartbeat author Peter Walker, how about a first book by a local writer which is already being described as "Heartbeat for teachers"?

Jack Linley, who was head teacher of Huby primary school in the 1970s, first published Teacher, Teacher himself two years ago.

He wrote under the pen-name Jack Sheffield. And the gentle humour of his fictionalised account of life in a North Yorkshire village primary school in the 1970s, and the wonderful gallery of slightly larger-than-life characters he created, soon attracted attention.

Now the book is being published by Corgi, priced £7.99 - and it will be launched at Waterstones in High Ousegate, York, at 6.30pm on Thursday.

Just about the same time as Tricia Walker's book is being launched at Borders, in other words.

You'll have to take your pick...