THE Rev Graham Taylor, the village parson and successful children's author, is to quit the ministry after suffering a heart scare.

Mr Taylor, who was formerly a Pickering police officer, is vicar of Cloughton. He become a national celebrity as the author of his Gothic tale, Shadowmancer, which has sold 250,000 copies since it was published, coincidentally on the same day as J K Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

He said he suffered the heart scare during a six-hour rail journey from London, and hospital tests detected a blood clot in his heart and an irregular heartbeat.

Mr Taylor, 45, said he was working 70 hours a week as the vicar of a large busy, rural parish.

His second book, Wormwood, is due for release next June. Mr Taylor says he has grossed about £400,000 from his first book, which now features in the national top ten children's books in Britain and is due to be launched in the United States next spring.

Mr Taylor says he will be still be acting as a locum clergyman, taking services in the Scarborough and Whitby area. "I shall be doing it on a voluntary basis, so the Church of England will be getting my services free."

He and his wife, Kathy, and their three daughters, Hannah 14, Abigail 12 and Lydia, four, expect to leave the Cloughton vicarage in about 18 months when he leaves the parish and moves to the nearby village of Scalby.

Updated: 11:37 Wednesday, November 12, 2003