Tributes flood in for horror bestseller James Herbert

Leading authors and industry figures have paid tribute to the horror writer, who died yesterday

Peter James, Mark Billingham and Neil Gaiman have all expressed their sorrow about Herbert, aged 69, who had been in good health and had lined up events in to support the publication of the paperback edition of his latest bestseller, Ash. 'You were a diamond,' tweeted Peter James. Also on Twitter, top agent Jonny Geller called him 'the great scaremeister.'

Publisher Jeremy Trevathen, who was James Herbert's editor for ten years, described him as 'a keystone author' and a 'giant of popular fiction', whose novels were 'classics of the genre.' His novels, which included Rats and The Fog were classics of 1970s and 80s horror, and in the UK, he even outsold Stephen King.

Here at Writing Magazine, we're sad to hear of the passing of a great popular writer who was, from the accounts of his friends, generous in his support for other writers.

'When Terry Pratchett and I wrote our first novel together, Good Omens, my first novel, he gave me a blurb for it, said something about how incredibly funny and wonderful it was,' said Neil Gaiman on BBC Radio 5 last night.

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