BESTSELLING crime novelist Andrew Taylor is offering a once in a lifetime opportunity to budding Forest wordsmiths to be immortalised as a character in his next book.

He has teamed up with The Forester to launch a competition. You need to tell us, in no more than 100 words, why our Forest is so special to you. It could be a precious memory or simply how being in the Dean makes you feel. Entries will be judged by Andrew and The Forester editor Viv Hargreaves, with finalists' entries published.

The Coleford author, holder of the Diamond Dagger, the world's top crime-writing award, co-led a community singalong at the January 3 HOOF rally, with Roger Drury as part of comic folk group The Pukes.

Now he wants to use his creative faculties to help the campaign some more.

The East Anglian-born novelist said: "We first came to the Forest of Dean in 1979. We spent our honeymoon in a cottage with the glorious sweep of the Severn estuary on one side and the mysterious Forest on the other.

"What struck us then, and now, was the Dean's amazingly varied woodland, and the fact we have access to just about all of it. The Forest belongs to us – to you, to me and to everyone under a benign system of public ownership. That's the reason we moved here for good nearly 30 years ago. That's why we're staying."

Andrew has written a series of books set close to home, the Lydmouth Mysteries. His new book, however, has the working title The Loyal American.

He has so far written 25,000 words of the first draft, set in 1780s New York, with a cast of Britons fighting the American War of Independence.

The book, due out next year, will be a sort of prequel to his best-known book The American Boy. It marks the return of character Mr Noak as a younger man.

"The theme of the book is loyalty, and how standards of authority can affect it," he said.

"I will name a decent character after the winner of this competition, not one who just appears on page 74," he pledged.

To enter The Forester competition, designed to raise awareness of the Hands off our Forest campaign, ensure your entry answers the question: 'Why is our Forest so special to you' is less than 100 words in length and send it to The Editor, The Forester, 43 High Street, Cinderford, GL14 2SL before February 28, 2011. Please send your entry with full details of your name and address and phone number.

l Terms and conditions:

Closing date for entries is February 28 2011.

Winners will be notified by March 14 2011. This is a joint promotion between The Forester newspaper and author Andrew Taylor. Staff and their relatives of Forester Newspapers Ltd are not eligible to enter. The editor's decision is final. Usual Forester Newspaper Ltd terms and conditions apply.