A FORMER Herefordshire schoolboy has become the male equivalent of supermodel Kate Moss, commanding as much as £30,000 a day for a photoshoot.

James Osborne - or Rousseau as he is known in the fashion industry - is originally from Much Marcle near Ledbury, but these days he is more likely to be found prowling the catwalk in New York, Paris or Milan.

The 20-year-old was snapped up by the London model agency Select about two years ago, while still a pupil at Malvern College. He is now one of their top male models, earning about £30,000 a day.

Maxine Henshil-Wood from Select said James's "beautiful" looks had really captured the attention of the fashion industry.

"His first job was for the Miu Miu campaign but he's done Vogue, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent and worked with models such as Lisa Ratcliffe, Giselle and Kate Moss," she said.

And it is not only on the catwalk where James has caught the camera's attention.

He is about to appear with American Beauty star Thora Birch in a teen disaster movie called The Hole, which is due for release this spring.

His former housemaster Andy Murtagh said he was "absolutely astonished" by the way James's modelling career has taken off.

"He's done very well," said Mr Murtagh.

"His career started to take off at the end of his last year at school but he was always pretty determined to do his A'Levels and he did very well at them.

"We never stood in his way and we were happy to bend over backwards if, for example, he'd been in Milan for the weekend and hadn't been able to finish his homework."

One of his James's friends, 16-year-old Barnaby Simons who is still at Malvern College, said he had always remained very level-headed.

"He came back to school last term and seemed just as he was when he was at school," said Barnaby.

James's mother, Nicola, said she was very proud of her son.

"But I must say that his success is largely due to the support he was given at both his schools - Abberley Hall and Malvern College," she said.