CRIME WRITER farmer James Oswald is to expand his Highland cattle herd after securing a new three book publishing deal with Penguin.

The Fife farmer first diversified into writing crime fiction by self-publishing his books on Amazon. When not tending his Highland cows and Romney Sheep in Newburgh, Fife, he worked on his books in a static caravan under a Dutch barn, surrounded by his dogs. But within months he sold 350,000 ebooks and shortly afterwards netted a £150,000 publishing deal with Penguin, after they won a five-way battle for the rights to his Inspector McLean novels.

Now his life, and his daily routines on the farm, have been transformed beyond recognition.

Oswald and Penguin UK release The Hangman's Song, the third book in the series, this Thursday (27th February). And as he prepares for the launch, he has revealed he has secured a further, improved, three book deal with the publishing giant.

"I've had a pretty transformational year," he admitted. "With farming, it can take time for the money to come back in but, thankfully, as I was looking at that, the book sales started to take off.

"It has meant adjusting things but I've no intention of giving up on either any time soon. We now have more cattle and more sheep, with the sheep mostly being sent off for meat and it's slowly coming together.

"A few weeks ago, we were TB testing the cattle. My partner Barbara and I managed to round them all up and shove them through the race over two mornings. I generally manage to make time for the jobs- and still write as well."

Oswald was the biggest selling debut crime writer in Britain last year, selling over 170 000 books.

He was short-listed for New Writer of the Year at the Specsavers National Book Awards and the success of his McLean mysteries helped him purchase a new tractor and a poly-tunnel to help with the lambing.

Not that accommodating his twin personas is always seamless.

"I like the balance but I do have to watch I don't do things like run over neighbours if I am driving up the road with a bale on the front of the tractor!

"You can find your mind occasionally wandering off to characters and scenes but, generally, I love the balance.

"If the writing isn't going so well, there's nothing better than being out in the tractor and getting away from the desk."