Dacre Stoker, a 51-year-old Canadian citizen and resident of Aiken in South Carolina, was the person who decided to embark on rekindling the magic of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

The great grandnephew of the famous Irish-born writer, who died in 1912, spent around six years writing the book with co-author Ian Holt before his Dracula The Undead hit the bookshelves in this country last September, with Americans having the chance to read it for the first time a month later.

Despite being aware of his links with Bram, it was not until he was at university that Dacre read Dracula, citing it was never something he had really been interested in.

He chose to do a research paper on Bram and why the Irishman was inspired to write his book.

But his impressive sporting career put paid to any thoughts of a sequel at that as he was part of Canadian Men's Modern Pentathlon team at the Senior World Championships in 1979, later becoming the coach for the team for the Seoul Olympics in South Korea in 1988.

And a 10-year teaching career at secondary school that followed ensured any thought of following in Bram's footsteps were to be put on the backburner.

However, in 2002, Dacre and writer Ian met for the first time and they hatched their plan to bring Dracula to the masses once again.

Holt had met world-renowned Dracula expert Professor Elizabeth Miller in Los Angeles in 1997 at a Dracula convention, celebrating the centenary of Stoker's story which was released in 1897, and was inspired to write a screenplay sequel.

But it was another five years before the meeting between himself and Dacre.

It was decided that they would embark on a book before a screenplay would follow.

So six years of painstaking research ensued.

They scoured 125 pages of notes, made by Bram while writing Dracula, at the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia.

And during this research they discovered that Bram had toyed with the idea of another ending to his famous story.

Dacre said: "I have seen so many versions of Dracula and very few bear any resemblance to his original work.

"Through our research we know Bram was so meticulous and his attention to detail was incredible.

"The way he managed to combine fiction with real events is amazing and I hope we have done him justice so the Dracula legacy continues."

And early indications suggest the book is a success.

With 27 publishers all over the world so far, the book has met favourable reviews.

TIME magazine, USA Today, Publishers Weekly and Entertainment Weekly were all full of praise and the New York Times, arguably the harshest critic for all reviews, was 'okay' according to Dacre.

But more important to him was the reaction of the Stoker family.

"It is strange to think of the impact the book has on people.

"When I was a teacher, you could tell the difference you have on a student.

"Whereas a book you never really know.