Sandy McGregor, chief reporter of the The Courier and Evening Telegraph in Dundee, has retired after 50 years with the company.

The long-serving journalist joined publisher DC Thomson & Co Ltd as an office boy on his 15th birthday, and has been there ever since.

But despite working his last day in the newsroom, Sandy will not be becoming a stranger to deadlines - as he is currently in the midst of writing a novel.

Sandy had his first book, The Law Killers - which tells the stories of murders in Dundee - published last year, after being approached by Black and White Publishing.

And it was so successful that the publishers offered him a second deal, which Sandy describes as "a fictional sequel".

Now he has switched from his desk at the office to a desk at home, and is busily putting the book together in the hope it will be published by Christmas.

He told HoldtheFrontPage: "I'm proof that you are never too old to write a book. There is hope out there for every journalist who ever wanted to write a book."

Sandy, (65), has worked in both news and sport at The Courier and Evening Telegraph and wrote a weekly column for the morning paper which he will continue to pen following his retirement.

He had been chief reporter for the past 13 years, overseeing a team of 28 reporters working on both the morning and evening title.

During that time he has seen many changes, with computers making much of newsroom life easier - but he admits there are downsides.

He said: "The real problem is the volume of e-mails that come at you. It's so easy for PR companies to send out e-mails to multiple addresses but they don't think of the person at the other end!"

Over the past few years Sandy has also been involved in the training of many journalists at the group, which runs its own in-house training course - something which he may also continue to be a part of.

He said: "It's fashionable to say that journalists were better 20 or 30 years ago, but they weren't better, they were just different.

"There are still a lot of good people coming through who don't want to be anything else but journalists."