An author who turned his garage into a library so villagers could share his passion for reading has died aged 76.

Jeremy Cameron passed away on holiday in Tobago over the Christmas period.

The former London probation officer who grew up in Norfolk wrote a series of novels based on his experiences, set on the streets of Walthamstow in the capital.

They included a series of stories featuring gangster Nicky Burkett, including Vinnie Got Blown Away, It Was an Accident and Hell on Hoe Street.

He returned to his native county after retiring in 2008, moving to West Acre, near Swaffham, where he could indulge his passion for cricket by writing reports for his local paper.

Friend Thomas Sheils said: "He was a proper Norfolk man - having moved to West Norfolk as a child. He had an unrivalled memory of West Norfolk village life in bygone times and was an avid cricket fan.

"He lived a very storied life - he once walked from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul, emulating the journey of Patrick Leigh Fermor, which he documented in his book Never Again."

In 2020, Mr Cameron converted the garage of his home into a library with his vast collection of books, many of which he had inherited, so villagers could enjoy his collection.

He said at the time: "The thought of throwing away a book is just appalling.

“I decided that my books ought to work and the public should be able to use them and enjoy them."

Mr Cameron reckoned to have read more than 3,000 books during his lifetime. His favourite was JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, while he considered Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace would have been "better with a few jokes".

In 2022, he published A Season in West Norfolk, a compilation of his cricket reports detailing the exploits of village teams.