An imaginative youngster has completed his first mission to be a published author at just 10 years old, with a science fiction story of a space traveller whose planet has been destroyed.

Nilson Semedo had his official book launch at Dagenham Library with his epic Tony’s Treacherous Times.

All his pals at Dagenham’s Five Elms Primary are fans.

“My classmates bought the book and they all read it,” Nilson said. “It took me 12 months to put together.

“I had ideas in my head and put them on paper, then wrote a manuscript and went over and over it before it was published.”

The story is about an alien species and a space traveller called Tony whose mission is to track down whoever destroyed his home planet.

“I like space books and see lots of action films,” Nilson said. “But Star Wars is not my thing — it just doesn’t appeal.”

Instead, Nilson uses his imagination for his ideas.

He follows in his mum Maria’s footsteps who has had two books published herself. The mother-of-three is a trained psychologist working with the Portuguese ex-patriot Cape Verdians Association. She is the author of the part-fiction Super Power of Caring for Others.

It’s little wonder that Nilson’s big hobby is reading — along with playing football with his mates.

He can usually be found at the public library in Becontree Avenue where he had his book launch, organised by Barking and Dagenham Council as part of a ‘Pen to Print’ programme encouraging new writers to the world of books.

His bedroom at home in Windmill Road is almost floor to ceiling with books.

But Nilson is far from being just a book worm. He’s a keen Arsenal fan and plays for Dagenham’s Gatcliffe Youth FC under-11s at Parsloes Park twice a week.

Ask him what he wants to be when he grows up and you’d think it would be a writer.

But he responds that he’s “already doing that now”.

His next mission is a sequel to Tony’s Treacherous Times (New Generation books at £7.99), which one day might find its way onto the Big Screen like Star Wars.