A retired editor’s “eccentric” artwork is set to be displayed in a long-established restaurant on his old patch.

The art by John Marquis will appear on the walls of the Longstore, in Truro, following a rebrand of the 40-year-old eatery.

John, who was editor of the Packet Newspapers group in Cornwall for a decade in the 1980s and 1990s, began “doodling and daubing” after undergoing two life-threatening operations in 2013.

The 77-year-old’s line drawings have since sold at Cornish street markets and art festivals, and one was selected as the cover design for a Cornish magazine.

He said: “I love writing, but drawing is even more absorbing.

“I’m really pleased that my art will be on show in Truro’s finest restaurant.”

John, a former Provincial Journalist of the Year, also served as managing editor of daily newspaper The Tribune, in the Bahamas, for more than a decade until his retirement in 2009.

His latest book – Cornwall: A Writer’s Paradise, due out later this year – is about famous writers who lived and worked in Cornwall, including John le Carre, Daphne du Maurier, John Betjeman and Colin Wilson.