A BARRHEAD author whose latest book tells of a monkey that escapes from captivity has revealed how the fictional tale was influenced by real-life events.

Alan Milligan’s new publication Esc-APE! was inspired by a family trip to Blair Drummond safari park, near Stirling, almost two decades ago.

A highlight of the visit was when a monkey clutching its baby jumped onto his car, delighting his young daughter Angela, who asked “can we take one home?”

He used the experience as the basis for a book and created a tale about the adventures of a monkey that escapes from the park.

But the story took an unexpected twist due to a real-life event that left him shocked and saddened.

Alan, 60, explained: “I was halfway through the book when I learned that all the macaques at Blair Drummond and two safari parks in England - 450 in total - had been slaughtered because they were found to be carrying Simian herpes, which is harmless to monkeys but can be lethal to humans.

“I had them all named and characterised in the book but the cull meant my story suddenly came to a grim halt.”

Undeterred, Alan decided to incorporate this event into his story.

He said: “I wrote about the monkey, which I named Chee, being subject to a hunt by the frantic authorities - something like the chase scene in the film ET.

“The monkey is later reintroduced to the park with the arrival of a new intake of macaques from Europe.

“I couldn’t believe how life imitated art when I read Blair Drummond was to reintroduce a troop of macaques from Gibraltar. They had outgrown their area of the Rock and, instead of a cull, were brought to Scotland.”

The book has also been compared to Dustin Hoffman’s movie Outbreak, which is about an African monkey carrying a lethal virus being smuggled into the USA.

Driving instructor Alan, of Craighall Quadrant, Neilston, has had his book self-published on Amazon Kindle.

He added: “Many friends and relatives have enjoyed reading the book and I hope it will now appeal to a wider audience.”

Alan is also planning to publish the book as a paperback.

For more details, visit www.amazon.co.uk/Alan-Milligan/e/B00MELC34Y