A COMPOSER based in Cornwall has composed a work of a different nature – a debut novel.

Paul Drayton, who is also a pianist, has written a story entitled Ultramarine about a young chorister in the Middle Ages.

The author, who lives in Par, taught at New College Choir School, Oxford, and has drawn from these experiences to build the world of Ultramarine.

Paul said: “The idea goes back to my first job, teaching music (and a little maths) in a choir school. This school educates choristers for the chapel of New College, Oxford, and has done so for about 600 years.

“The music sung by these young choristers, together with adults, is of an astonishingly high standard, an unbroken tradition of music and liturgy that seems to me very precious.

“I saw at first-hand how young people from all backgrounds could have their lives enriched and formed by this specialised training. The novel imagines what that same experience might have meant for someone born in the very distant past.”

The book, priced at £10.99, will be published by the Book Guild on October 28.

Actor John Nettles, who comes from St Austell, said of the novel: “Set in a golden medieval time… informed by a wealth of technical, spiritual and social detail – a complete and wonderful world which will surely delight the reader.”

A spokesperson for the Book Guild said: “A young chorister enters a world of alchemy and betrayal in the debut novel by pianist and composer Paul Drayton. A tale of ambition, creativity and deception unfolds in 14th century England, where three brothers seek their places in a world of strict social divisions.

“Paul’s music, performed worldwide, has been praised for its ingenuity and for its direct communication of human feeling. His previous publication, Unheard Melodies, is a light-hearted introduction to classical music for the non-specialist.”