A child who has made history is targeting her second world record in the space of 12 months.

Bella-Jay Dark, who is six-years-old, was officially crowned as the world’s youngest published female author last June when she sold more than 1,000 copies of her book The Lost Cat.

Now the youngster from Weymouth is looking to go one step further and take the title as the youngest female author to publish a series of books.

Bella-Jay’s second book, Snowy’s Birthday Party, is out and available on Amazon, Waterstones and through publisher Ginger Fyre Press.

To claim the title, Bella-Jay, whose pen-name is Bella J., will again need to sell 1,000 copies in order to surpass the current record held by Laiba Abdul Basit who was 10 years and 164 days old when she published a series of novels called Order of the Galaxy.

The six-year-old said it would be 'just amazing' to scoop her second world record.

Chelsie Syme, Bella-Jay’s mum, told the Echo she was “immensely proud” of her daughter.

She said: “We’re just really proud of all the support and it’s surreal, if we’re honest. She’s always loved reading and writing: it’s been a huge part of her routine since she was little.

“When she got her first record it was in quite a few (national) papers and I was just tucking her into bed, doing normal things with her, and to see all the attention was really incredible. We’re so proud of her but we’re not surprised: once she gets something in her mind she’s always been determined to see it through.”

This latest book surrounds the protagonist Snowy the cat and explores ‘how friendship is more important than possessions’.

A book signing event is being planned to take place at Sharky's Fun Factory on the Granby Industrial Estate, Weymouth, later this month to help push Bella-Jay past the 1,000 mark.

Bella-Jay’s first book The Lost Cat is about Snowy, a cat who gets lost after going on an adventure alone at night.

The book, including pictures, took the then five-year-old just a handful of days to complete, with her big sister Lacie May chipping in to help draw the big picture on the final page.