A TEACHER from Clovenfords is off to Hollywood after one of the movie industry’s biggest producers bought the rights to her book for young adults.

Claire McFall's novel Ferryman, which tells the story of a young girl killed when a train to Aberdeen crashes, has sold more than a million copies in China.

And now the 35-year-old's trilogy of books could be set for worldwide recognition after the film and graphic novel rights were picked up by Legendary Entertainment - the producers responsible for some of the biggest movies of the last decade, including the most recent King Kong and Godzilla films, and all of Christopher Nolan’s early work, including his Batman films and Interstellar.

Claire was at Peebles High School last week, where she teaches English, when she took a call from her agent detailing the company’s offer.

She said: "I did a bit of dancing round the classroom.

“When Ferryman was released in China, I was simply excited to see my story translated into another language; it’s meteoric rise in the Chinese fiction charts has left me speechless – and delighted.”

Ferryman is a retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Charon, the ferryman of Hades, who transports souls to the Underworld.

Published in the UK in 2013, it won that year’s Scottish children’s book award for the 12-16 category and was shortlisted for various prizes, including the Carnegie medal.

In China, Ferryman has been one of country’s top 10 bestselling books since June 2015, joined by its sequel, Trespassers, published last year.

The success in the Far East, which has been compared to Beatlemania, has spurred Legendary to propose two versions of the film, with one in English and the other in Chinese.

Claire added: “Now, thanks to Legendary, we begin a new chapter.

"Seeing Ferryman alive on the screen is something I could never have envisaged back when I was typing out those first few words, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds.”

Claire's other books include Bombmaker, about a Scottish teenager called Lizzie, who lives in a post-apocalyptic, independent Scotland, where the English Government has put up a border wall to keep out Scots and the Welsh.