A FORMER Second World War airman and prolific writer is to have three books published on the same day.

Bill Spence, 86, who writes as Jessica Blair, has penned many novels from westerns and romances to historical fiction.

His paperback version of Stay With Me along with an omnibus edition of The Long Way Home and Dangerous Shores come out on May 5.

He said: “I get a lot of enjoyment out of writing books and I don’t think I would be happy if I didn’t write. Stay With Me has already been out in hardback, but it’s now coming out in paperback as a natural course of events.

“My publisher, Piatkus Books, has decided to release the omnibus edition at the same time. They are historical sagas set on North Yorkshire coast in the 18th and 19th century.”

Born in Middlesbrough in 1923, he trained as a teacher but the war intervened and RAF duty came along. He was a bomb aimer on Lancaster Bombers of 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron Bomber Command and, after the war, he was sent to Africa.

There he caught the writing bug and wrote for newspapers before writing a book about his wartime life. He penned 36 books between 1960-93 and started a review column in the Yorkshire Gazette and Herald.

A visit to Whitby sparked an interest in whaling and it was from this that the Jessica Blair novels appeared.

The first was released in 1992 and up to 2007 there had been 15 written in that name by Mr Spence, of Ampleforth, near York.

Details on Mr Spence’s books can be found by visiting www.jessicablair.co.uk.