At just ten years old, Harry Winearls from Hatherleigh has become a published author, writing and formatting his novel specifically to help dyslexic people with their reading.

Harry, who suffers with dyslexia himself, has written, illustrated and published the 158-page book, Captain Mechanical: Race to the Mechfinity Claw, in the hope that his work will “change the world for people with dyslexia.”

He added: “That’s the goal I want to try and hit with these books. I want to raise awareness of the other difficulties with dyslexia - it’s not just reading, it can give people loads of difficulties like with memory, maths, instructions and concentration.”

Harry’s book has been published in a larger san-serif font size and wider line spacing as this makes the text less crowded and easier to follow, according to the British Dyslexia Association.

“Sometimes when I’m reading, if there’s not too much dyslexia help, I’ll find really tricky to say the right thing. I’ll be looping over the same line over and over and then eventually I realise that I’ve been going over the same line.”

When writing his novel, Harry used voice recognition software and later edited and improved the text with help from his mum. He also put his talent for art - his favourite hobby - to the ultimate test and drew the illustrations which accompany the story.

Captain Mechanical tells the story of a young boy who escapes factory work to become a diamond miner, soon becoming caught up in a race against a band of air pirates.

The inspiration, Harry said, came from his interest in pirates. He said: “I’ve been into pirates for ages, but when we got to read about sky pilots, I thought that took it to a whole new level.

“I’ve always wanted to write a book and I thought that was the perfect thing to write about.”

Now, Harry said he is working on the second book in what he plans to be a Captain Mechanical trilogy. For more information visit the Amazon website.