DISGRACED quiz show contestant Charles Ingram has re-launched himself as a thriller writer.

Mr Ingram, a former Army major who is appealing after a court ruled he had cheated, with a friend coughing the correct answers, on TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, was signing copies of his first book in Waterstone's bookshop in the Brunel Centre.

The book is called The Network and is a thriller about a nuclear weapon being detonated in London by Islamic extremists and is based on Mr Ingram's own experience of how the military and Government handle major terrorist threats.

It's the first in what Mr Ingram, who lives near Devizes, hopes will become a successful series.

He said The Network was proving popular with Swindon readers.

"It's a ticking-bomb political thriller," he said.

"It's in the style of Frederick Forsyth or Tom Clancy."

Signed first edition copies of The Network are available at Waterstone's.