Some of Yorkshire’s finest writers have put pen to paper to offer their take on a mystery dating back more than 90 years.

The likes of Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Jilly Cooper, Alan Titchmarsh and Barbara Taylor Bradford are among the contributors to a new book about the identity of the woman behind Bettys.

Swiss chocolatier Frederick Belmont, who founded Bettys in 1919, has taken the secret of the company’s name and the identity of the real Betty with him to the grave.

But now the company, which has six tea rooms, including one in Ilkley, is hoping to make the most of the mystery and help raise more than £40,000 for the Yorkshire Rainforest Project, a campaign by the family business to save an area of rainforest the size of Yorkshire.

The book, Who Was Betty?, is filled with tall stories, poems and cartoons gathered from famous names close to Yorkshire’s heart and includes bestselling authors, world-famous playwrights and OBEs, all giving their version of who the mysterious muse could be.

There is a foreword by The Prince of Wales, founder of the Prince’s Rainforest Project, while Bettys family member Jonathan Wild has also contributed a tale and there is an anonymous contribution – slipped under the door of the tea rooms by an unseen hand.

* ‘Who Was Betty?’ is available from Monday from the six Bettys Café Tea Rooms in North Yorkshire and from bettys.co.uk or by calling 01423 814008. Priced at £5.99, all profits will go to the Yorkshire Rainforest Project.