'Vanished' novelist back after 24 years

An award-winning author who vanished into obscurity after writing his first novel has "reappeared" 24 years later with a new book his publisher describes as "a masterwork". Peter Rushforth, whose debut novella won the prestigious Hawthornden Prize, is poised for a high-profile comeback with an 800-page historical epic.

A self-effacing Quaker schoolmaster, Mr Rushforth was hailed as one of the "bright young hopes" when he emerged in 1979 with Kindergarten, a sinister re-telling of Hansel and Gretel set in Nazi Germany.

His publisher asked him to write a follow-up, but gave up after several years of badgering. Now, against all expectations, he is back with a mammoth new tome,Pinkerton's Sister, which draws on characters in Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly.

And he is so fired up by his source material that, having failed to write anything for the best part of two decades, he is already "well into" a sequel, and expects to write at least one further volume before his story is complete.

Mr Rushforth, 58, who recently retired from the Friends School at Great Ayton, near Whitby, North Yorkshire, explained that he had been forced to continue teaching after Kindergarten because despite winning critical plaudits, it was not a huge commercial success.

"I arranged a sabbatical from the school, took a term off, did some research and wrote about three chapters of my second novel, but when I got back to work again I found it impossible to find the time to finish it," he said.