A FORMER Argus journalist has called on years of his own industry experience to help provide the basis of his debut novel.

Slowly Burning by Nigel Jarrett follows the story of ex-Fleet Street crime bureau chief Bunny Patmore, who winds up on a Welsh weekly newspaper.

A one-time reporter, sub-editor, business editor and music critic during a distinguished 30-year career at the Argus, the Cwmbran-born writer has used an amalgamation of characters from his past to create the protagonists in his book.

“I've worked with a few journalists who'd arrived in the provinces with Fleet Street credentials, but Bunny Patmore isn't based on any one of them in particular,” said the author, who now lives in Abergavenny.

“What they did was suggest to you the kind of milieu in which they'd operated.

“Combine that with their colourful outlook and kosher methods of working – methods you might not have thought of yourself – and it's enough to let the imagination slip the leash,” said Mr Jarrett.

In the novel, the lead character takes time off to investigate the implications of the letter – left to him in a gangster’s will - which involves a notorious gangland double murder.

Meeting an array of characters along the way, he heads back to Wales with a red hot exclusive, while offering snatches of his own history as the son of a Fleet Street printer.

The author, a previous winner of Rhys Davies Prize for short fiction, also writes and reviews for the Jazz Journal, Acumen poetry magazine and the Wales Arts Review.

Mr Jarrett added: “I hope people will buy the book but not just for my sake. This is an all-Gwent venture, a book conceived, written, edited and published in the locality and in the traditional way.

“Publishing, not least the newspaper industry, is changing rapidly.

“It's an exciting, if controversial, development. Certainly the independent book publisher's hour has arrived, which is why I'm pleased that Gareth John offered to take up the novel,” he added.

Slowly Burning, by Nigel Jarrett, is priced at £8.95 and published by GG Books. The title will be available soon on order at all good bookshops and at glimpsesofgwent.com and oldbakehouseprint.co.uk.