A WAR story set in Cumbria has been dedicated to the area’s unsung heroes of the time.

Carlisle author Mike Routledge has published his first novel The Reiver, which is inspired true events in the region.

After he retired, Mike, 67, worked as a volunteer at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, where he helped organised the museum’s lunchtime lectures.

He researched and put together some talks - back-ups in case for some reason the speaker couldn’t make it - and when doing this research he came across what would become the foundations of his first novel.

“As I gathered the information together I noticed a lot of people in Carlisle were heavily involved in World War One, some at home and some out on the battlefields.

“I had never heard of these people. I’m in my sixties and have an interest in history but knew nothing about this involvement,” he said.

Between March and August 1915 significant event in the region also caught Mike’s attention. He says in many instances events and people were linked, even though sometimes the links were quite tenuous.

He began to wonder if there was a link between the Quintinshill rail disaster, damage to the barracks at Carlisle Castle and a German submarine attack on the coastal communities of Lowca and Parton, near Whitehaven, which fired 55 shells from its deck gun meant for a nearby chemical works.

He’d also researched Carl Hans Lody, a German spy who was based in Scotland at the start of the war.

“I thought what if all these incidents weren’t accidents and a similar character was let loose?

“The Reiver was born,” said Mike.

Inspired by inspirational characters he came across in his research he decided the book would be a way of celebrating their contributions.

Mike, a former teacher and school inspector, said: “I hope people will read it and enjoy the story. I’m certain most people who buy it will be local and hope it draws attention to some of the things that happened in World War One.

“There are some fantastic local heroes who were around at the time. It is a way of remembering them and that’s important.”

Coincidentally one of his characters - chief inspector Jack Johnstone, who is modelled on his father and grandfather, and who is trying to catch the spy - has the same name as the inspector involved in the Quintinshill disaster. But Mike only discovered this detail after his book had been sent of to the publisher Troubador.

The book includes an section on the history behind the story and also a Reiver Trail, a suggested walk around Carlisle to explore the locations it features.