Roger's quiet belief pays off

Feb 26 2008 By Catherine Lillington

BIRMINGHAM author Roger Ellory has made it on to the bestseller lists with A Quiet Belief in Angels.

The 42-year-old, who lives in Bordesley Green, is at No.3, according to The Times, and at No.9 at High Street bookshop Waterstone's.

The novel, Roger's fifth, was chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club, which turns unknowns into bestsellers overnight.

Roger, who started writing at 20 and even stopped for a few years out of sheer frustration at getting knocked back, said: "It just changes everything.

"It's a different playing field entirely.

"Everywhere I go I see the book, it doesn't matter if it's at a train station or airport. Every which way I turn I see the thing!"

There are currently 221,000 copies of A Quiet Belief in Angels in circulation and about 80,000 have been sold so far.

Roger added: "I've had people who I regard very highly as authors and also people I know, from different walks of life, coming up to me saying they've read it and how much they loved it."

Among them was Kate Mosse, another Richard & Judy pick.

About 7,000 paperback copies of Roger's previous book, City of Lies, were printed.

He said: "I just have this vision of a warehouse somewhere, with pallets of books, which is slightly overwhelming.

"Hopefully I've created something people will derive pleasure from. It's an amazing feeling to know you're moving readers."

To read an extract of the book, click here