When Clive Woodall began making up the story for his two sons, he called it One for Sorrow, after the first line of an ancient children's skipping rhyme. Though the title was meant to be escapist, it reflected his situation. His marriage had broken up, and only he was left was left to read to them at bedtime.

But yesterday the rhyme's second line - Two for Joy - came into play. With his story due to come out as a book today, Mr Woodall has found himself living a fairy tale. The 47-year-old supermarket manager in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, has heard that One for Sorrow has been bought by Disney for $1m (£552,000).

The money will be split equally between him and Franc Roddam, the knight in shining armour who by chance heard about the story, fell in love with it, set up a company to publish it and knew Hollywood well enough to clinch the Disney deal.

Mr Woodall said: "I'm up on cloud nine. It feels very surreal and lovely at the moment. I'm very happy with the contract."

Rejoicing with him were his sons Chris and Dave, now 21 and 17, and his second wife Tricia. He put the finishing touches to One for Sorrow on their honeymoon in 1995.

One for Sorrow is about a lone robin who is given the apparently impossible task of saving a world called Birddom from evil magpies.

Mr Woodall said he had drawn inspiration for the tale from the magpies he saw on roads during his drive to work, tearing at the carcases of creatures killed by night traffic. Finding it hard to keep pace with his sons' demands for new instalments, he wrote late at night or in the mornings, between supermarket shifts.

He owes his luck to the fact that a colleague of Tricia's was Mr Roddam's bank manager. He showed the manuscript to Mr Roddam, who said he had been hooked instantly. Mr Roddam said yesterday: "The story has a timeless beauty and a haunting morality which transcends age and society."