AN Oxford mother with the reading age of a 12-year-old has swept her dyslexia aside to write her first novel.

Jane Yates, 50, took just 21 days to write her debut novel, Paradox Child.

It was self-published last month and has already had more than 100 downloads online.

The e-book is set in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford where Miss Yates works part-time.

She used all her knowledge of the museum’s exhibits and displays and her love of animals to create the story, which concerns a secret tunnel under the museum.

The 12-year-old protagonist Lily becomes embroiled in a time travel adventure as her family secret of casting spells is revealed.

Miss Yates, of Botley, took part in National Novel Writing Month, which challenges would-be authors to write 50,000 words.

Fellow museum worker Kim Biddulph acted as editor, as she used the works of the museum of anthropology and archaeology as inspiration.

The mother-of-three said: “I wrote it in bed. I couldn’t sleep so every night I sat down and wrote, and it seemed to come out at once.

“I had all these words inside me fighting to get out. I think a lot at work so it was only natural to wonder about a secret world under the museum.

“There are rooms underneath the Ashmolean Museum and the Bodleian Library, so I used those for inspiration too.

“It’s set in the 1980s and is about a girl who is a dreamer, like I am.

“I have a reading age of a 12-year-old and the spelling age of an eight-year-old, so it was a challenge.

“The reviews have been positive so far, and I hope that it directs more people to Pitt Rivers, which is an amazing place.”

Miss Yates also writes for the Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys community newspaper Leys News.

She praised her three children, Emily, 19, James, 31, and Marie, 29, her editor at Leys News Sarah Edwards and Ms Biddulph for their support.

She said: “Sarah has been an absolute rock, and Kim has been amazing. She has been wading through my bad spelling.

“I’ve sold paintings in the past but I hope that this is something I can really get stuck into.”

The book is part of a planned trilogy, and Miss Yates is already heavily into the second book.

She moved to Oxford in 2001 after spending time in Wales and studied physics, the environment and technology at Oxford University.

Paradox Child by Jane Yates is free to download on August 1, 2 and 3. It normally costs £2.03. See amazon.co.uk/Paradox-Child-Series-ebook/dp/ B00D8J41DM for more details.