Shropshire author buzzing ahead of release of latest book

Mr. B’s Busy-Bea (The Ritzzz Hotel) is the latest offering from Roy Bradshaw and is his fourth published work, following on from three books in the Barley’s Biscuit series.

Roy, from Madeley in Telford, a supply teacher in the primary sector, drew on his experiences as a Year 3 teacher as inspiration for his latest book.

Mr. B’s Busy-Bea (The Ritzzz Hotel) will be uploaded to Amazon, and will also be available through the Nielsen Book database towards the end of October.

It is now available to pre-order through his website.

Roy explains: “The book is vaguely based on my experiences in a Telford school. I had a little fluffy toy bee the class called Busy Bee, which I gave to the kids as a motivator – something to take home with them for the weekend, or holidays when they had done well in their school work.

“Later, when developing the characters for the story I personified Busy Bee, giving her the name of Busy-Bea (short for Beatrice),” he added.

“Mr. B’s Busy-Bea (The Ritzzz Hotel) proves that Santa doesn’t just exist for humans. The Ritzzz Hotel, located in the Land-of-Santamonious, is home to a colony of bees and their very special Queen. They are incarcerated, however, by an invisible curse which is closely guarded by a colony of vicious and nasty creatures called Dragasps – a cross between a dragonfly and yellow jacket wasp.

“The Dragasps need the curse to remain so they can feed on the bees’ honey, but the stocks are dwindling to a dangerously low level and the colony are on the brink of destruction.

“Arthur Smith, known as Teddy, the lucky student to win Mr. B’s famous toy bee for the Christmas holidays, teams up with his grand-daddy Royston and Busy-Bea to help free the Queen and her colony from the curse – but the intrepid trio are confronted with many problems along the way.”

The book has been illustrated by Lisa Williams, published through Media & You and is an attempt by Roy to appeal to a wider audience, after his three books already published – Barley’s Biscuit: Pattern’s Rock Quarry, Barley’s Biscuit: A Paddle and the Golden Glow and Barley’s Biscuit: Pipits Perilous Flight.

He said: "I have another nine books in that series that I want to publish and I have several more Busy-Bea’s in my bonnet – three already written. I am also working on a third series of books called Marti-Rye the Mole and his Munificent Monocle. I have written three of those so far.

“Each of the three series are very different types of adventure stories. Barley’s Biscuit are problem-solving type books, Mr. B’s Busy Bea focuses on the battle between good and evil, and Marti-Rye is just a cheeky chappie with an obsession for collecting shiny things – especially if they don’t belong to him.”

Mr. B’s Busy-Bea (The Ritzzz Hotel) can be pre-ordered by visiting roybradshaw.co.uk and anyone wanting to get in touch to arrange a school reading or book signing can email Roy at roy.bradshaw456@outlook.com or call him on 07874 706780.