A first-time author has been amazed by the reception her bedtime story written for an autistic child has received during a book tour around Suffolk and Norfolk.

Fleur Bateman said she was shocked to find fans of Burt the Binman meeting her at signings in Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, Southwold and other WH Smith stores around the region.

“It’s been going brilliantly,” she said. “I am absolutely stunned by how many people already knew who we are. People of all ages have really embraced Burt.”

The self-published book chronicles the adventures of an heroic refuse collector who inspires people to recycle in his home town of Southwold.

The town is renamed Willswold in the story in honour of her eight-year-old son William, who helped devise the idea.

Mrs Bateman, a mother-of-three who runs a guest house in St Neots, said she was inspired to write the book by William’s obsession with recycling so she could tell him a bedtime story set in the family’s favourite seaside destination.

Mrs Bateman, Burt and William, will visit WH Smith in Woodbridge from 11am and Ipswich from 1pm next Wednesday.