A former editor has written a horror novel in which the main character is a local journalist.

Gary Phelps has penned 13 Doors, which focuses on news reporter Joe Baxter’s plan to use his newsroom contacts across England to find 13 haunted places to stay, and then record his experiences in a book.

Written under the name ‘GJ Phelps’, the novel is described as a “spine-tingling supernatural mystery entwined with chilling ghost stories, includes some stories based on real legends from the West Midlands”.

Gary served as editor-in-chief of the Tamworth Herald, Nuneaton News, Royal Sutton Coldfield Observer, Lichfield Mercury, Walsall Advertiser and Great Barr Observer until 2018, when he left publisher Trinity Mirror in a restructure.

He now runs a public relations consultancy.

Gary told Wolverhampton’s Express & Star: “I have always been a devotee of horror and supernatural fiction and, as an Eighties kid, grew up watching classic movies of the time.

“I wanted to write a book that paid homage to those influences, while adding something new and different to the genre.

“Most of all, I wanted to write a horror novel that was rooted in my journalistic background – that featured the kind of odd, real-life stories that occasionally come into all newsrooms.

“So, while 13 Doors is fiction, there are a handful of stories and anecdotes in it that are based on real stories – stories that journalists couldn’t explain.”

The book is available to order on Amazon.