PENZANCE-based author and poet Nan Rudden launched her children's book The Rainbow Stone at Morrab Library recently. Nan has had a rich and varied life on which to draw for inspiration.

She worked in the department of genetics at both Cambridge and Oxford universities, becoming an authority on fruit flies. She also hitch-hiked through France and Switzerland – working for a time looking after children – before marrying and having four of her own. Later she accompanied her husband on his lecture tours throughout the world, before retiring and returning to Cornwall.

Nan has written everything from poems to country and western songs to, as she once admitted, "four children's books, still in manuscript".

Now, one of those four, The Rainbow Stone, is in print and Nan was kept busy at the library signing copies for both parents and grandparents with an eye on a suitable Christmas present for their children and grandchildren.

From its foreword to its final chapter the book is certain to engage and enthral young readers. It begins with the request: "Tell us the whole story of how everything began" and continues "Long long ago in the days when the world was young, they rode down from the hills of the far country on the other side of the great river."

It goes on: "Many were the cattle they captured from the men of the marshes, but the warriors grew restless and said to their chieftain, 'Sire, we have heard that beyond this place lies a land that is vast, plenteous and beautiful. Let us make our way there, for surely we shall find many adventures and much advantage.'"

The adventures that follow make for exciting reading.

The book is peopled by characters with names such as Rialobranus, Brannoc, Bernic, Merewenna and Kerdic – not to mention the Champions of the Sword, Axe and Spear and the three Billy Goats Gruff, Little, Middle and Big.

There is no doubt in which part of the world its "fabled homeland" is situated. The story centres around the hero's quest for this land and his hope of restoring the king's health and empire.

With a distinct Celtic feel, illustrations by Trystan Mitchell add enormously to the book's visual appeal and atmosphere.

This is a book "told with the authentic tone of ancient sagas, such as the Welsh Mabinogion and the Irish Tales of Cuchulain."

An all-Cornish production, The Rainbow Stone is designed and produced by Camborne-based ImageSet and published by Redruth-based Palores Publications at £5.99.