AN AUTHOR with a taste for gruesome yarns has been drawing on Worcester’s more chilling legends for a series of tales to chill the blood.

Readers can expect a skinned ghostly Viking on the rampage and an unpopular Royal who, apparently, turns into a werewolf.

As you do.

Writer Glenn Martin James, who has lived in Worcester, has started his new series with “Norseman on the Threshold”, which he describes as a tale of ancient hauntings and brutal punishment.

He said: “Norseman on the Threshold sees the spirit of a long dead Viking unleashed on the peaceful inhabitants of Worcester Cathedral, when a daring burglary goes badly wrong.

“But while the sinister ghost of the dead Norseman is wreaking havoc, he is not the only restless soul to be up and about, as the spirit of King John, incarnated as a werewolf, is also on the prowl.

“Norseman delves into the rich history of Worcestershire, taking its initial inspiration from a famous and grisly relic on show in the Cathedral library: the remains of the skin of a Viking found under the hinges of the great Cathedral doors.”

Mr James added: “It’s a dark and bloody tale. The story goes that when the Cathedral was last raided by Vikings a little over a thousand years ago, one of them wasn’t fast enough to get back on their ship, and the monks caught him. It’s said he was skinned alive by the monks, and they fixed his pelt to the doors to warn off other raiders. In the 1980’s, proof of the story came to light. When the doors were being renovated leathery material was found, stuck under one of the hinges - and it was DNA tested; and it proved to be the skin of a Scandinavian man”

As for the Royal werewolf legend: apparently that was made up by monks who disapproved of King John’s tomb being in the Cathedral.

Norseman on the Threshold is available as an ebook online from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ibook,and Kobo.