After the war, Moore rejected a grant to study at the University of Cambridge, citing a wish to "stand on my own two feet". He wrote his first book, "Guide to the Moon" (later retitled "Patrick Moore on the Moon") in 1952 and it was published a year later. He was a teacher in Woking and at Holmewood House School in Langton Green from 1945 to 1953. His second book was a translation of a work of French astronomer Gérard de Vaucouleurs (Moore spoke fluent French). After his second original science book, "Guide to the Planets", he wrote his first work of fiction, "The Master of the Moon", the first of numerous young adult fiction space adventure books (including the late 1970s series the "Scott Saunders Space Adventure"); he wrote a more adult novel and a farce titled "Ancient Lights", though he did not wish either to be published. Moore also translated the book Quanta by J Lochak and Andrade E Silva, published in 1969, from the French.