He's written scripts for Hollywood epics such as Judge Dredd and Hellboy, and worked with the likes of Marvel legend Stan Lee, but these days when he gets a break from Tinseltown you might find writer Andy Briggs in a field in Kent trying to fly the drone he got for Christmas.

As a self-confessed geek, and lover of technology, Andy, who lives in Ashford, was bitten by the drone bug - although he admits he still can't fly his well - and was inspired to write a book about them for older children.

"Travelling around the country on a book tour I met several excitable pupils who race drones. I had previously thought it was a world reserved for adults, but not so. And it turns out the younger racers tend to be the best - blurring the line between video games and the real world. Meeting those children was what made me start thinking about the concept of the book.

"I love technology," he said. "I play drones and crash them regularly. There is a racing group in Kent and it is becoming bigger. It is a wonderful world that not many people are aware of."

His latest book, Drone Racer, tells the story of Carson and his friends, who love racing drones, and can't believe their luck when they stumble across one in a junkyard. But this one is full of surprises.

Andy said: "With my Stan Lee mindset I thought 'how can this become a bigger story?' So I made a drone a bit like Alexa or Siri - it can talk. Then the kids find it is on the run and it wants to be free. It makes it feel human."

He added: "My books are read by boys and girls equally. But children are the most direct critics."

Andy started out in the writing game, following his brother Peter, also a screenwriter, into the film and fiction world. "He did Alien vs Predator on an old typewriter when he was unemployed but Twentieth Century Fox loved it. I came out of college and I was absolutely broke so we started working together.

"A dream of mine was to work with Stan Lee," he recalled. "I met him at an event and I ran up to him and told him about the very first books I'd written - they were superhero books - and he said 'send me the books'. I did and three weeks later I got a letter from him saying they were good."

Andy may now be at the top of his writing game and in demand around the world, but he can still be an excitable kid too.

"When they're making one of my films, I always beg for a day on set," he admitted. "I can't miss it. Earlier this year I was on the set in Ireland of Supervized. It's a film starring Tom Berenger, and is set in a retirement home for ex-superheroes."

Drone Racer by Andy Briggs is published by Scholastic and costs £6.99 in paperback.