A HORROR author’s final novel is ready to be published almost a year after his death.

Ron Weighell, who grew up on the Island and went to school in Newport, became a Portsmouth based writer of horror fiction in the English ghost story tradition of M.R. James and Arthur Machen.

Ron’s stories have been published internationally, including in the USA, Canada, Ireland, France, Germany, Romania, Finland, Belgium, and Mexico.

Ron died on December 24, 2020, aged 70, following a major stroke a few weeks earlier.

Before he was taken ill, Ron was putting the finishing touches on a new novel titled ‘King Satyr’.

His wife Fran said: "Ron always loved the traditional ghost story, and in King Satyr, as in all his writing, he aims at the same atmosphere and sense of the strange and uncanny.”

With help from short story author Mark Valentine and publisher Robert Morgan, Fran worked tirelessly to publish his last novel.

The artwork for the book was created by Ron’s lifelong friend, Portsmouth illustrator Nick Maloret.

Mainly set in the 1960s and 70s, King Satyr features characters inspired by figures in the Occult World of the late 19th and 20th centuries, such as artist Austin Osman Spare.

It features mythological and historical references from many cultures, reflecting Ron's vast range of knowledge.

Writing on behalf of publisher Sarob Press, Nick Goodall said: "Ron was a fascinating character. He was highly intelligent, articulate, and well-read with many interests, and you could have been excused for assuming that he was a senior academic at the university.

"Although many fans of the horror genre are familiar with his work, he modestly had little interest in promoting his stories, as his main interests were the research and writing."

King Satyr is scheduled for publication by Sarob Press in late November/early December 2021 and can be ordered through www.sarobpress.blogspot.com