Channel hoping author hopes to be the Darling of novel fans

A PROLIFIC author from Offerton has just released her fifth crime fiction book where the main police character is openly gay.

Lesley Tither, 63, grew up on Hillcrest Road and attended Stockport High School, in Cale Green, as well as Stockport College.

She has now moved to the Auvergne region of central France and writes full time with her latest book the fifth in the DI Ted Darling series.

It is once again set in Stockport and features the local landmarks she remembers and that are still familiar to Stopfordians today.

Lesley, a former journalist, said: “I wrote the first crime fiction last year and have since published five in the series.

“I use Stockport as a backdrop because it’s where I grew up and the images are still vivid in my head, although for things which have changed I check with various Stockport groups on Facebook.

“I mention the wonderful viaduct a few times as it’s a great landmark, and places I remember from my childhood, like Roman Lakes, feature.

“The actual police station in the books isn’t the present one, or even the old one which I remember, it’s a fictional one and the exact location isn’t actually mentioned.”

Lesley began writing three years ago and began with travel memoirs inspired by her move to France.

She writes crime fiction under the pen name LM Krier and travel memoirs as Tottie Limejuice.

Her late father John Tither was a local newspaper editor and well-known in his role as sacristan and lay reader at St Alban’s Church.

Speaking of the DI Darling series, Lesley said: “Ted Darling is gay but it is just an incidental part of his character, like his love of cats.

“He’s in a stable long-term relationship with a younger man, and his fans from all round the world seem to love him.

“Having a name like Darling, being below average height and also being gay has brought him a few problems throughout his police career, but having black belts in four martial arts helps him to get by.”