Peter James

What was the first ebook? Debate rages ... When Peter James published his thriller Host on two floppy disks, in 1993, it was billed as the "world's first electronic novel", and attacked as a harbinger of the apocalypse which would destroy literature as we knew it. Now it has been accepted into the Science Museum's collection as one of the earliest examples of the form, as the spotlight of academia begins to shine on the history of digital publishing.

The best-selling horror author James Herbert, described as ‘one of the giants of popular fiction’, died yesterday aged 69. Mr Herbert, who wrote horror classic The Rats, died only a week after his 23rd novel, Ash, was published. He was prolific, releasing a new novel almost every year between 1974 and 1988, but said he remained ‘very insecure’ about his skills as a writer.