A Harpenden writer's cheeky tweet has persuaded television presenter Jonathan Ross to read her début novel, which was inspired by her near death experience.

Toula Mavridou-Messer messaged the celebrity with a link to her adult fairytale Mortal End on the spur of the moment and minutes later he tweeted back that he had downloaded it and was 'looking forward' to reading it.

The 46-year-old is now excitedly waiting to hear his thoughts on the book which she says is a tale of 'intrigue, murder, cannibalism and incest'.

The fantasy who-dunnit follows Ænus P. Wordsworth, an arrogant, absinthe-drinking village rector, as he plays detective attempting to discover just who the bones in the giant mound of burnt toffee belong to and how on earth they got there.

"My inspiration came from almost being killed in car crash on the M1 upon my return from a crime writing course hosted by the amazing novelist Val McDermid, " says Toula.

"The policeman who attended the crash knelt down in front of the car in the pouring rain and prayed. He then came to my window and said, 'God must have been holding you in his hand. There is no way you should have survived that.' "That got to me to thinking about death and somehow the question of 'Who was the wicked witch in Hansel & Gretel and why on earth did she want to eat children?' came to mind.

"Before I knew it Mortal End started to take shape in my mind.

"I also did some research and discovered the true story of a woman called Amelia Dyer, who was a baby farmer, back in the 1800’s and was responsible for the deaths of at least 400 children that she ‘fostered.’ "Although the subject matter is extremely gruesome Mortal End is written as an adult fairytale so you are spared graphic detail and in fact, there is a great deal of dark humour throughout.

It took her just three weeks to write the novel and she says: "I would work during the day and then sit up during the night for a few hours as the words seemed to just flow through me. It was possibly the relief at surviving the crash that somehow removed my writer’s block.

"Every time I started to falter, I would remind myself what the alternative scenario could have been and that spurred me on. Also, my characters are quite wonderful and definitely had a life all of their own, so I was excited to see where they took me.

"Months after the book was completed, I bumped into the late and great author James Herbert at an event and he made me promise him that I would one day publish the book and as I always endeavour to keep my promises, here it is!"

Husband James designed and illustrated the front cover while she edited the manuscript and they decided to self-publish it, uploading it to Amazon a few weeks ago.

"Magically a few days later it was being bought and downloaded, " says Toula.

"The feedback so far has been incredible and extremely positive, so we are thrilled to have given life to Mortal End."

See more about the book here