A DEBUT novelist's first book is set in a futuristic Monmouthshire torn apart by the effects of climate change.

Retired computer programmer Keith Haslett has travelled the world but found everything he ever wanted in Wales’ renowned ‘Red Land’.

The 68-year-old has just published his first ever book of the same name and is planning a crime fiction series he hopes will put the region on the literary map.

Inspired by a career in technology, the Usk resident found Gwent’s reputation as a place of soil and rocks the ideal setting for a futuristic look at how human advances could one day affect family life.

"The whole concept of the book is that in 20 years’ time we are suffering climate change and the red land itself is overheating," Mr Haslett said.

"The town in the book is anonymous but there are similarities with Newport, Chepstow and Monmouth, and the Severn Bridge and Severn Barrage has also informed it."

Set in 2031, Red Land, released through his son Simon's self-publishing firm Black Barn Books, sees grandfather Llewelyn Martin buried in a world where food shortages and state paranoia are rife.

Described as a portrait of ‘living and trying to cope with the uncontrollability of human nature and nature itself’, Mr Haslett drew on worries for his eight grandchildren and says some issues raised are already emerging.

Originally from Newport, Mr Haslett lived in Australia, England, America and Europe before returning to Gwent 30 years ago with wife Paulette.

After retiring in 2008 his mind turned increasingly to the pressures of the modern world, as well as long-held plans to write a book.

Now he is putting the final touches to his next novel, a thriller called Addiction, and hopes Monmouthshire will one day play Oxfordshire to his very own Inspector Morse, Detective Sergeant Melanie Challis.

"Perhaps we think Monmouthshire is too pretty to be involved in the dark deeds of crime but it’s this contrast, this fair county we are in, and what an earth is going on underneath that I am interested in," Mr Haslett said.

"I am doing now what I probably wanted to for a very long time."

Red Land is available online at Amazon.co.uk or from www.blackbarnbooks.co.uk priced £9.99.