A STAPLOW teenager has just published his second book, at the age of 18.

Windsor of the North, by Benjamin Furnival, is his second book in four years on English architecture.

His proud mum Sue said: "He continually surprises me with his achievements. He has done more in his short life than a lot of adults achieve in a whole life-time."

Benjamin, a former chorister at Hereford Cathedral School, is currently in China, where he is travelling before beginning a degree course at Edinburgh University on architectural history.

His latest book, a history of Brougham Hall, Cumbria, published by Ross Features International, is now on sale in Ledbury Books and Maps in the High Street.

He chose Brougham Hall as a subject because one of his ancestors, Emily Frances Taylor, married into the aristocratic Brougham family in the early 19th Century.

His interest in architecture secured him an invitation from the Queen Mother to tour Clarence House and a further invitation from the Prince of Wales to see the fire restoration work at Windsor Castle.

The teenager's first book was the self-produced Purbrook Park and the Taylor Family.

Copies of this book, which again is partly a study of a stately home, and partly an account of Benjamin's own ancestors, can be found in the library of the House of Commons.

One of the teenager's relatives, Peter Taylor, was MP for Portsmouth in the late 18th Century.