A FORMER Wimbledon veteran tennis champion turned children’s author is hoping for big screen success.

Jasper Cooper invented the Kingdom of Gems as a bedtime story to entertain his two young children Rebecca and Joseph.

When the youngsters began asking for more of the stories Jasper ended up turning his magical characters into a self-published trilogy.

Jasper, who also illustrates his books, now has more books in the pipeline.

He has had interest from film companies, Creative Artists Agency and New Line Cinema, distributors of Lord of the Rings.

The author grew up in Bournemouth and his former home in Queens Park South Drive later became part of Park School.

He visited the school over Christmas at the request of head of library Laura Stainton-Burrell.

Jasper, 58, is now based in Kent, but visits schools across the south of England.

He said: “It started off as a five-minute bedtime story that turned into a trilogy.

“There was quite a healthy film interest and hopefully it will re-ignite.

“I am really concentrating on the books at the moment. I do quite a lot of school visits and sell quite a lot of books and do a lot of Waterstone’s signings.”

Jasper’s son Joseph, now aged 24, and a talented tennis player, designed his father’s KOGworld website and helps with book promotion.

“You start off with a rough story in your mind and ideas pop up sometimes when I am lying in bed,” Jasper added.

“I love children and am quite childish myself in a lot of ways. The whole thing of writing is an adventure with lots of twists and turns.”