A retired teacher and blind author has released a new book ahead of Christmas - her fifth published book to date.

In April 2018, primary school teacher Anita Mulvey went blind in a matter of days, and her vision loss forced her into retirement on medical grounds.

Since then, her spare time has been used to pursue her long-term aim of becoming a writer - primarily of children’s books and light-hearted, ‘magical’ stories.

Anita’s newest book is titled ‘The Marvellous Magical Saxophone’.

Speaking about the book, Anita said: ‘It's a Christmas story, and it's about two children. Their dad has lost the magic of Christmas, and they go up into the loft to get a Christmas tree that they're going to decorate to try and bring back the magic.

‘While they're up there, they find a mysterious box that has an old saxophone in it, and they don't know where it’s come from. It turns out that it was their mum's saxophone, who used to be a saxophone player before she died.

‘I don’t want to spoil the rest - you’ll have to read it to see what happens next!

‘I used to play the saxophone myself, so I think that’s where the idea has come from.’

Anita has now published five children’s books since she went blind in the space of five days back in 2018.

Writing full time was made easier by Sight Matters, formally known as the Manx Blind Welfare Society.

Sight Matters looks after the interests of more than 500 people with serious sight loss in the Isle of Man.

The charity set Anita up with a laptop and special software which enlarges and repeats the words on the screen she is using, which enables her to write.

Anita agreed that her loss of sight has enhanced her imagination. She said: ‘I think that's a good way of explaining it.

‘I think you have to have good ideas in your head because I can’t see anymore. Retiring from teaching has given me the time to work on those ideas as I’d always wanted to be a writer.’

Writing books is not the only thing Anita has done in her spare time since becoming blind. Remarkably, she has also sky-dived from a height of 13,500ft in order to raise £770 for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

Talking about her experience, Anita said: ‘I’ve always loved flying, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

‘There was 16 of us in the plane, and we were all squashed up like sardines. There was only one other tandem jump and the rest of them were soldiers!

‘We were in the air for roughly six or seven minutes and we did plenty of swerves before we hit the ground. It was amazing, and so great to raise some money for the RNIB too’.

Anita’s new book is available to buy on Amazon, and can also be ordered from Waterstones (although it’s not on the shelf).

The book is also available at both Bridge Bookshops in Port Erin and Ramsey, as well as at Island Inspirations in Strand Street.