The funeral of a talented journalist who died from cancer at the age of 74 is being held in Aberdeen today.

Norman Adams began his career in journalism at the Aberdeen office of publisher DC Thomson, working on the Sunday Post, Dundee title The Courier, and the now defunct People’s Journal.

He later joined the Aberdeen office of the Scottish Daily Express and also worked for the Daily Record and spent a year in what is now Zimbabwe, in the mid-1960s, with The Rhodesia Herald.

After being made redundant at the Scottish Daily Express, he and two former colleagues, Ernie Wight and Donald Smith, formed a successful news and PR agency – Aberdeen News and PR Services.

He was later editor for three years  of the north-east based Leopard Magazine and then became an associate of the Aberdeen public relations consultancy Logik Image Management for 20 years.

He then went on to become an author, writing horror books.

Paying tribute to Norman, fellow Scottish Daily Express journalist Ninian Reid, who collaborated with him on a number of books and film scripts, said: “All his working life, Norman was a wordsmith of extraordinary range and talent.

“The thread of Norman’s literacy legacy – and it’s a formidable one – could be woven round two predominant but far from exclusive themes: body-snatching and the unsettling presence of ghosts, down through the cob-webbed centuries.

“Much of Norman’s huge talent, for flawless and engaging writing, was influenced by masters of the craft of journalism, who have long since parted company with us but who may well be gathering to welcome Norman’s return to their heavenly domain.”

Norman was married to Edith Garrow and they had two sons: Norman, a photographer with Aberdeen City Council; Kenneth, a freelance journalist; and a daughter, Eleanor, who lives with her family in Houston, Texas.

After Edith died, Norman married Moira Forbes, and they made their home at Auchattie, a hamlet near Banchory in Kincardineshire.

Norman was working almost up to his death on his latest book on body-snatchers and scripts for the Commando magazines, published by the Dundee-based DC Thomson group.