A former pioneering medical expert has written a book of eerie ghost stories based in Bristol.

Robert Wallace, 53, has compiled several short stories, with one based on an spooky incident which happened near the writer's home in Clifton Village.

The novelist, who grew up in Stoke Bishop, has included in his book the tale of a girl who was having a bath one night when her flatmates heard a piercing scream.

They found her nearly drowned by an invisible force pressing down on her chest.

When they confronted the landlady she told them of a girl who had committed suicide in the same bath during the 1970s.

Mr Wallace said: "Each of the Bristol mysteries is based upon a nuance of fact.

"The recurring theme with the structure is to take a current situation and then flash back in time to discover the truth behind the mystery and an explanation of what really happened."

The book, called Clara's Secret, opens in October 1976 in a haunted flat in Windsor Terrace but leaps back to pre-war Bristol.

The author worked with photographer Adrian Ford to shoot ghoulish recreations of Bristol landmarks.

Costumes from the Bristol Old Vic were used to recreate an antiquated edge to the pictures.

Mr Wallace said: "Bristol is an amazing city and in terms of it's architecture it just lends itself to mystery stories.

"The Roman harbour and the Birdcage are both very interesting because they are in exactly the same state they were 100 years ago.

"You just don't get that sort of architecture elsewhere. It evokes powerful images in the imagination – even more so than the city of Bath.

"This is why Adrian's photography has been such a perfect compliment to the project.

"He takes iconic Bristol locations and gives them a totally different slant, an ethereal quality which is quite outside our normal visual radar.

"Together with archive photography and bespoke shots for the stories, I really believe we have created something special.

Another story is based on the Crown Jewels being secretly kept in Bristol during World War II since the Tower of London was deemed unsafe.

Others are centred around landmarks like St Vincent's Cave – known as Giant's Cave – beneath the Bristol Observatory.

Mr Wallace is married with two children. He sold the family business – which manufactured pioneering In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatment – 15 years ago before moving to East Anglia.

Wallace Products sold equipment to hospitals in the South West.

The world's first successful IVF procedure used an Edwards-Wallace embryo replacement catheter in 1978.

The author has also written a screenplay called JAX, which a film company is currently reviewing.

Clara's Secret, published by Tangent, will go on sale on September 11 in Waterstone's.