EXETER author David Evans said: "I could paper the walls with the rejection letters and slips I have had over the years.

"I kept all the good ones — some were interesting, funny and well written."

David comes from a farming family, and his literary character Farmer John Stubblefield is based on memories of childhood friends' fathers, and personal experience.

"I suspect it is the marketing men who turn Farmer John down, as they think the character wouldn't take off. He is old fashioned, probably — but in the same way as Bob the Builder, Postman Pat and Fireman Sam. My greatest hope is that he will be animated like them one day," David says, with no trace of bitterness.

Born in Kenya, where his parents and grandparents were pioneer farmers, when his parents left the country after independence and moved to Bratton Clovelly, David studied agriculture at Seale-Hayne and then turned to breeding pedigree Charollais sheep.

He became a dab hand at sheep shearing and could shear around 100 a day — "though the crack New Zealanders can do 250-300", he says with a smile.

Illness forced him to give up farming, though farming wasn't ready to give him up.

"When I moved to Exeter in 1995, after the death of my father, I started writing and did my first Farmer John story in 1997, although it was rather basic," he says. "I wrote about six that summer, sitting outside in the sun, although I haven't looked at them much since. I was really chuffed when I wrote my first story."

A couple of years later, David had the urge to put pen to paper a second time. "I don't know what set me off again. Then my mother died in 2001 and whether she gave me some impetus from beyond the grave I don't know, but I just kept on writing. I would have loved her to have seen them," he says, quietly.

David's output of Farmer John stories is meticulously archived. They are all written in longhand and he has dated each one. "I have the whole archive in several lever arch files — I must have written about 70 or 80 stories up to 2005," he says.

"The later ones are a bit more sophisticated. Sometimes I would write one or two a day, sometimes one a week — I would get the idea and just write off the cuff. I just write it all down and it is a wonderful feeling when the idea is coming down from your brain and into your pen. I wish I could do it all the time.

"I am not a disciplined writer. I can't sit at the desk every day and bash out 2,000 words like some people can. I am not a professional writer, but I feel I am a natural children's writer and it is good to be able to write something entertaining to encourage children to read."

Eventually David had had enough of the rejection letters and took matters into his own hands, employing the services of a well-known illustrator, Jake Tebbit, and using a publishing service, Pen Press, which sells his book online through its website and also through Amazon.

Thistledown Farm: Farmer John's Boots And Other Stories is a collection of 17 Farmer John tales, all an ideal length for a bedtime story.

David has worked hard on characterisation: Wendy, the farmer's wife, is an ideal foil for his little foibles, while the animals are all far smarter than he is.

"He is eccentric and a lot of farmers are a bit like that," David says. "It can be a lonely life and it is a hard job. It takes a lot of stamina and physical effort battling with machinery and livestock and the elements every single day."

He says he very much enjoyed the farming life — difficult as it was, it was not nearly as tough a battle as trying to get Farmer John into print. "I have sold some books on the internet — about 220 — and at places like Thorverton Show, but I have spent five years trying to get published properly," he says.

" I have confidence in Farmer John and know that one day a publisher will feel the same. I feel I have another couple of books in me — Farmer John has been with me for a very long time and I am not ready to give up on him just yet."

David Evans signing books at Waterstones in Cathedral Yard on August 7 from 11am to 3pm.