Best-selling fantasy novelist David Gemmell has died at the age of 57.

The former Sussex journalist had undergone quadruple heart bypass surgery a fortnight ago and appeared to be making a good recovery before his death on Friday morning.

Mr Gemmell wrote 30 novels, translated into more than a dozen languages and selling more than one million copies in total.

His first book Legend, written in 1984, told the tale of a fortress under siege. It has become a heroic fantasy classic and is still in print.

He was a patron of the Hastings Writers' Group, which runs a national writing competition named after his novel. The Legend Writing Award would also be judged by Mr Gemmell.

Jean Russell-Parnell, secretary of the group, said: "He was our patron and a very nice man. Everyone is terribly shocked."

Born in west London in 1948, Mr Gemmell was expelled from school for gambling in 1965 and worked as a labourer, driver's assistant and nightclub bouncer before becoming a journalist and newspaper editor.

He became a full-time writer after being sacked for using the people he was working with as characters in his third novel Waylander, according to the website of his publishers Transworld.

He also featured in The Argus several times. He wrote a novel for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital when it lost its copyright to children's classic Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie in the Eighties.

Mrs Russell-Parnell said as well as regularly giving talks to new writers, Mr Gemmell, who lived in Udimore, near Rye, and had lived in the Hastings area for many years, provided prize-money for the Legend competition.

She said: "He was such a vibrant man and would do anything to help new writers. I knew he was going up to London for his heart operation. He was so young but he did seem worried."

In a statement Mr Gemmell's publisher said: "For many years, David has been acknowledged as a master storyteller, one of the best-known and most highly regarded writers in his field.

"His themes of heroic adventure, leadership, personal heroism and the possibility of redemption for every one of us ring as true today as they did when he first published the novel that was to become a classic of heroic fantasy, Legend.

"His most recent books were two historical novels about the siege of Troy, Lord of the Silver Bow and Shield of Thunder."

Larry Finlay, managing director of Transworld, said: "David was writing at the peak of his powers. He was a true pleasure to work with. We will sorely miss him, as will his thousands of devoted fans around the world."