MY STROKE PUT ME ON WRITE TRACK

Who can forget those endless summers of outdoor adventures, picnics, country rambles and mystery solving, all washed down with lashings of ginger beer? For everyone of a certain age, Enid Blyton's Famous Five books were compulsive childhood reading... then the arrival of the hugely popular TV series in the late Seventies gave fans another excuse to enjoy those spiffing tales all over again.

For Marcus Harris, the stories of adventure and derring-do hold an even more significant presence in his childhood. That's because aged 13 he beat thousands of other boys to play the role of the leader of the group, Julian, in the legendary children's ITV series filmed in Dorset and the New Forest.

"I had read all of the books, so when I got that call I was really excited," he says. "I went up to the auditions and there were 5,000 kids going. It was absolutely mad. To be successful through that process, to then have been in the Famous Five, to have recorded that and to have lived the life with Gary (Russell), who played Dick, Jennifer (Thanisch) who played Anne and Michele (Gallagher) who played George, was just absolutely phenomenal."

The adaptation of Blyton's celebrated stories, first published in 1942 with Five on Treasure Island, was filmed in the New Forest and Dorset. "The day we finished was absolutely devastating," says Marcus of his time in the two series. "Those two years are like a sixth of your life at that age.

"Living with a new family and in this exciting amazing environment, where they built you cabins, roomscapes, cellars and caves and put you in rowing boats - you can't believe how lucky you are to live like that. And then suddenly it all stopped and they gave us our bikes and packed us off.

"I remember my dad came to collect me from the set on that particular day and he took me off to camp, just me and him, because he knew I would need to decompress and work out what was going on."

Despite Southern Television's wishes to continue the series, no further episodes were made due to the Blyton estate's veto on the writing of new stories. Marcus takes up his own story. "That was my first ever TV role and although I have worked as an actor off and on ever since, it isn't a regular income.

"So in the Nineties I set up various businesses, buying up little companies, little mail-order businesses and adding to my portfolio. I thought I could be like Richard Branson and so I just kept borrowing and buying. But then interest rates went up and I got into real difficulties. I lost my home and my relationship at the time."

Always one to bounce back, Marcus found work as a presenter on the QVC shopping channel and became involved in local politics, serving as a town councillor and mayor of Wallingford in Oxfordshire. He has always dabbled in writing but with little success until now. The twice-married father-of-three has just published his first novel,
Running Away.

But it took a life-threatening illness to spur him on to actually finish what he had started and abandoned years before. Three years ago he suffered a potentially fatal haemorrhagic stroke that medics expected him not to survive - let alone sail through without any lasting disabilities. Marcus recalls: "I got out of bed one morning and my leg just gave way from under me and I fell on the floor.

"I asked my wife, Lucy, just to help me back into bed, thinking I would just sleep off whatever it was, but thankfully she rang for an ambulance and, even more thankfully, one just happened to be entering our village. Thanks to her and the paramedics I was on the operating table at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital within an hour."

During the subsequent five-hour operation a blood clot was removed from the base of Marcus's brain stem.

He says: "I was literally half an hour away from being dead. My wife was taken into the little room at the back of the hospital and the surgeon said, 'Be prepared - he's only got a two-and-a-half per cent chance of walking out of here.'"

By the time Marcus came round from the surgery there were 30 friends and relatives gathered at the hospital, prepared to say
their final goodbyes, including his tearful elderly parents.

Marcus says: "My son James had even shut the coffee shop we co-own. I couldn't understand why he had done it. I felt fine.

"My mum, who has Parkinson's, was crying at my bedside and I just thought, 'Why are you crying?' I felt so lucky. There is no point in me ever doing the lottery now. I've had my share of good luck."

Two days later, with no ill effects, he was back home planning a date night with Lucy when the phone rang. His surgeon had discovered the cause of his stroke and it was was unusual in a man of his age and a non-smoker and required Marcus to come back that night for another operation. His main artery was producing clots and needed a stent fitting.

It was after his second operation in a week that he took some time to reflect on what he still wanted to do with his life.

"I laid there in my hospital bed and thought back to the Famous Five, my QVC presenting days, the businesses, being mayor of Wallingford - everything I had done so far and the other things I still wanted to do.

"I realised that there were two things left undone in my life. One was to catch a bus from John o' Groats to Land's End. The other thing was to write a novel."

Running Away was partly inspired by his own troubles in the Nineties when his financial world came crashing down around him - leading to him losing his home and first wife.

Marcus says of his novel's protagonist: "JT's life is out of control. Mounting debts, damaged relationships and a very real threat to his life. Every day he fantasises about running away from the pressure. He dreams of escaping life.

"One day, those pressures become crippling and he takes action. He simply can't continue any more and, so, he stays on the train, leaving his past behind. This snap decision sends him to Cornwall, where he dreams of a freedom that takes him away from his stressful life to a rural paradise. But even in paradise, his nemeses can find him."

Marcus adds: "My life never spiralled to that extent but I could see how it could have, so although the book came from my imagination there was something there, perhaps something we've all felt in desperate times."

The novel explores what it is like to give up your old existence and to try and live in a largely cashless society with no identity.

Marcus is hopeful it will be a success. So much so he is even penning a second novel, this time with a supernatural theme, although he is still acting, with a few jobs in the pipeline. But what does he think about the recent editing of Blyton's books for a modern
audience after some of her language was deemed offensive?

Words like "queer" - never used in a sexual way by the East Dulwich-born author - have been changed, and you will no longer find any "brown-faced" or "fat" characters either.

Marcus says: "I wouldn't want to see anyone offended by her books. They were written to entertain children, not upset anyone.

"Language evolves over the years and the meaning of words changes, and terms that were commonplace in the past can be deemed offensive today. I think as long as the essence of the stories remains the same, I understand the need to modernise." Marcus and his former Famous Five castmates regularly meet up for dinner and drinks for what has become a life-long friendship. Only George is sadly missing.

Actress Michele Gallagher died by suicide in 2001 and the other Famous Fivers like to keep that private. But Marcus says: "The rest of us still meet up. We had such great times together. We really are like siblings."

In true Julian style, he had plans to lead the Five into more adventures - if only the beastly Blyton estate hadn't vetoed it.

He says: "I have actually written the story of what happened to the Famous Five when they became middle-aged. Julian is a High Court judge and Anne is married to a chap who works in the City and she runs a stables in Dorset. George is a senior police officer, but she and Dick have fallen out over a man.

"George was with him and Dick - who is gay and a showbusiness publicist who drives a flash sports car - ran off with him. I think it would be brilliant but I can't get permission to do it, unfortunately."

Perhaps not surprisingly. The famously conservative Enid Blyton would be turning in her grave - although to anyone who loved the Famous Five back in the day it all sounds like jolly good fun, even with grown-ups!

Marcus Harris's debut novel Running Away is out now (Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie, £12.99)available from all good bookshops, and Amazon