A FORMER Gazette photographer from Dursley has turned his hand to crime writing.

As well as working in the newspaper industry, Ken Hitchings has been a wedding photographer for over 50 years.

And it is this field he has used as a setting for his new novel.

“I been photographing weddings for over 50 years,” Ken said.

“I started when I was a photographer on the Gazette.

“I estimate that I must have photographed somewhere in the region of 2000 weddings.

“You cannot beat the excitement of meeting an engaged couple and them allowing you to play a small part in the special day,” he said.

Entitled Snap, the novel opens in a sleepy Gloucestershire village with a murder, and the disappearance of a wedding photographer.

Ken said that he had always wanted to write a book and that with many weddings postponed during the pandemic, he used the ensuing down time to give it a go.

“I used the opportunity that Covid afforded to actually do it,” said Ken, who is a big fan of TV crime programmes and crime novels.

“The book is a crime thriller with a message about loneliness running through it,” said Ken. “I think loneliness is the hidden epidemic and Covid has highlighted this, and in fact created more of it.”

Copies of Snap are available from Amazon via: amzn.to/2SCPqnP