The story of Denzel the Orphan Duck started life behind bars with its creator, former Cat Burglar Sid Carter. During that time inside the story grew from Sid’s childhood memories into a tale that captivated some of the hardest criminals ever to be locked up at Her Majesty’s pleasure. But it was only years later after Sid’s release from prison that it really take off: thanks in part to the efforts of his daughter Leah.

Born in 1944 and raised in Orpington, Kent, Sid was the middle child of ten siblings. His mother was of Irish descent from quite a wealthy family; his father from South London without the benefits of such a privileged background.

His nine brothers and sisters chose respectable paths but Sid, and no one is quite sure why, chose an altogether different route. To outsiders he might be described as the black sheep of the family yet to those who knew him best he was a lovable rogue.

It was those roguish ways that eventually led to Sid accumulating a serious amount of money on the one hand and a serious amount of jail time on the other.

He became a notorious thief who graduated at the ‘top of his class’ as an infamous cat burglar, acquiring a respectable name within his ‘chosen’ career.

Despite his criminal tendencies Sid had always displayed a flair for the creative and it was memories of his childhood days spent in what was then the relatively untouched rural landscape of north Kent that sowed the seed for Denzel.

That seed germinated during a spell in prison and Sid committed it to paper. As word of his story spread so more and more fellow inmates crammed into Sid’s cell to hear the next instalment.

Since his release the story, though not forgotten, was consigned to the bottom of his wardrobe where it spent a good few years metaphorically collecting dust. And that might have been that if his daughter Leah hadn’t taken matters into her own hands, last year.

She worked in the same office block as the publishers Austin Macauley. With Sid’s manuscript in hand she took the lift to their London office, knocked on the door and more or less said: ‘You’ve got to publish this.’

And that is more or less what they did. They liked what they read, saw its potential and took the bold decision to publish this first-time author.

In the story the reader follows the life of Denzel on a lake that is both lonely and dangerous. It is this danger that caused Denzel to be orphaned at an early stage when his parents, brothers and sisters are killed by a man with his ‘firestick’. Fortunately he meets a pair of kindly coots who adopt him and give him a home where he feels loved and safe.

He becomes best friends with young Wally the Dartford Warbler, who is also feeling the loneliness of life as his species is under threat and becoming increasingly rare.

Together they explore the lake and all its various inhabitants making new friends along the way. But the youngsters face constant dangers from some of those same inhabitants and from those men with their ‘firesticks’. Together they learn first-hand the meaning of 'the food chain'. The big question is will Denzel and Wally’s friendship survive into adulthood?

Sid’s creativity is not restricted to his writing. He has constructed an award winning cottage garden which brings a touch of the countryside to his suburban street. And when he isn’t working on that he indulges his other passions of fishing and cooking.

But it is Sid’s story of a little duck finding his way in a big world that captured so many fans while he was inside and that will surely capture many, many more now that he is going straight on the outside.

Denzel the Orphan Duck is published by Austin Macauley on 31 October and is available from all good bookstores, price £8.99.