SOME partners buy red roses and others boxes of chocolates to mark Valentine's Day but devoted husband Ken Stout has published a book written by his late wife on this most romantic of days.

Mr Stout's only regret is that he did not think of turning his wife Sherrie's manuscripts into books while she was still alive.

He said: "I really wish I had done that. It upsets me a bit that I have waited until after she died."

Retired military man Mr Stout from Devizes had been married to Sherrie for 54 years when she died two years ago. Last year he published a children's book she wrote called To Free A Pharaoh.

Now he has published Ropes Of Sand through Silverwood Books in Bristol and it will be available from Amazon and Devizes Books. Mr Stout said: "The second one is much more of an adult drama."

It is partly set in India and partly in Scotland in the 19th Century.

Mr Stout is pleased that although he already has some of the paperbacks in advance the official launch date will be February 25 which was Sherrie's birthday.

The couple had two daughters and one of them Nicola Whaley is helping her father with the book's marketing.

He said: "The first book has not sold many but I am not doing it for that reason. It is just something that I know she would be very pleased about."