A BOLTON-BASED grandmother has celebrated her 90th birthday by launching a new book series for children.

Jean Fisher, who lives in Heaton, has been working on the project for over 12 years, with life often disrupting her work.

After sharing her idea with one of her sons, 57-year-old former maths teacher Ian, the pair began working on the 10Tickers series, which was officially launched yesterday.

Mrs Fisher said: "I've always been interested in early years and as far as I know there aren't any books that embrace all facets of the curriculum and the more I thought about it the more I was determined to make the series.

"I want it to be educational whilst being engaging to children, something like the Teletubbies, which is how we came up with the 10Tickers.

"The characters come from my son's 10Ticks curriculum, I remember talking about it needing a family of young Tickers and I thought it had a ring to it – they're little jolly things.

"Over the years I've got sidetracked, and it's quite lucky that I did because two years ago the early years curriculum changed to have seven aspects to it instead of five."

The pair have been working together for a few years, but increased their efforts to launch the title after schools closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, as the books would help parents and carers with home learning.

Made up of 11 books, the series is a set of fun and educational stories for three to five-year-olds which cover key areas of the early years curriculum.

Mrs Fisher added: "It was a really unique experience, very rarely does a mum have the opportunity to work with her child and know him as a mature, hard-working, successful man.

"It's fascinating what he told me, between us we have over 100 years experience in education and it was really lovely to do this with him – we went along the road together.

"As long as it brings enjoyment that's what it's all about, to provide children with fun learning."

Visit 10tickers.com for more information about the books.