A NEW author inspired by growing up amid the dreaming spires is celebrating after landing her first book deal for her novel on the perils of online dating.

Zoe May, originally from Summertown and now based at Woolwich, London, penned her debut novel Perfect Match, after a string of bad dates and failing to find love in the 21st century with apps such as Tinder and Bumble.

Explaining the inspiration behind the novel the 30-year old said: "I had been on a ton of bad dates with guys who weren't quite right for me and I got to the point that I just wondered, ‘What would happen if I was just completely honest about what I was looking for?

"What would it be like if we all just stopped beating around the bush about what we’re after and just created really honest to-the-point dating profiles without caring whether we sounded superficial, weird or high-maintenance.

"I never actually tried this approach, but my heroine, Sophia, in Perfect Match, does. After one too many glasses of wine, Sophia, with the help of her flatmate, creates a dating profile for a multi-millionaire with the face of Robert Pattinson and the body of Daniel Craig.

"He must have a fluffy rescue cat, a penchant for Armani and a glamourous London pad. Sophia and her flatmate are just having a laugh.. But a guy replies a few days later meet all Sophia's ridiculous criteria, and she can’t be sure whether she’s finally lucked out and found her perfect man or if there’s a terrible catch."

After landing the publishing deal with HarperCollins she said it was 'a dream come true'.

She added: "I have wanted to be a novelist since I was about 15 so I was absolutely over the moon when they offered me a book deal. I was sitting in Costa when I got the call and I actually cried.

"Before I wrote Perfect Match, I'd experimented with a few different writing styles and tried to be literary for a while, but that didn't really feel right for me. I was more likely to be found with my head inside a fun rom com novel than the latest literary masterpiece, so I decided to write the kind of book I'd enjoy reading."

On her inspiration for becoming an author she said that growing up among the dreaming spires had left a big impression.

She said: "Oxford did inspire my writing in the sense that growing up in such an academic city probably made me an intrinsically bookish person.

"I used to go to the Oxford Country library a lot when I lived in Oxford and would happily sit there for hours plucking random books from the shelves, although even back then, I was most likely to be found in the romance section."

Zoe is now working on her second novel to be released on HQ Digital - a romantic comedy called How (Not) To Date a Prince.

Perfect Match is available at Amazon, iBooks & Kobo.