A Ledbury author and former journalist is celebrating the publication of his second novel.

Gary Bills, a former reporter at the Ledbury Reporter, has written Sleep not my Wanton, which he describes as a “Gothic romp”.

New York-based publisher The Little French’s Media has high hopes for the book and plans to promote it at the London Book Fair.

The company also published Gary’s first novel A Letter for Alice and a collection of short stories, Bizarre Fables, which came out last year complete with illustrations by Gary’s wife, the artist Heather E Geddes.

“It’s really encouraging to have a keen publisher on board, which means I haven’t had to contemplate self-publishing or vanity publishing,” said Gary.

“When you write anything, you never know if it will see daylight with a publisher, and sometimes all you have to go on, to keep going, is faith in yourself.”

Gary said he has always liked “the Gothic mood” and enjoyed reading Dracula as a teenager.

“I suppose the urge has always been there to write a Gothic novel of my own, while avoiding the usual fare of vampires, and so on,” he said.

“I am also interested in the concept of the unreliable narrator - how one person’s truth can be a delusion, but the deluded still see and hear the world they inhabit. The writer, of course, is free to describe that world.

“So, Sleep not my Wanton is a novel with a few psychological twists, and in this way, even though it is set in Victorian London, it is quite modern in some of its aspects and outlooks.”

Gary said that in another respect, Sleep not my Wanton is very much a novel of the Covid era.

“Much of the action takes place in one house, and the claustrophobic atmosphere of being trapped or confined in one location, in a somewhat threatening world, is another aspect of the plot,” he explained.

“Finally, it is a love story, of sorts, even if the reader can only view the main relationship from one, skewed angle. I’ll say no more about this, to prevent me giving a little too much away.”