AUTHOR Sophie Neville has been presented with an international award for her memoir Funnily Enough.

Her true story set in the Stroud valleys received third prize in the annual International Rubery Book Awards.

Funnily Enough tells the story of life with her family who keep tame otters at their home in Frampton Mansell. It was written in 1991 while Sophie was recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

The sequel, Ride the Wings of Morning is a travel book based on Sophie’s adventures after her recovery when she worked as a horse safari guide in Southern Africa.

She was soon using her skills to set up documentaries for the BBC and found herself travelling extensively though Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Sophie is currently editing diaries of her time spent as a child actress on location in the Lake District playing Titty Walker in the 1974 feature film of Arthur Ransome’s immortal story Swallows and Amazon’.

Sophie’s books, illustrated in full colour format for Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Sony and Diesel Ebooks are available on Amazon.