Portsmouth is to honour one of its most famous literary sons by naming a road after his latest book.
Graphic novelist and fantasy writer Neil Gaiman (below) said he was “gobsmacked” to learn that the title of his novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane will appear on the local map.

Portsmouth council hopes the gesture will encourage a “love of literacy” among young residents.

Gaiman lived in the city until he was five but often returned to stay with his grandparents. “I was even barmitzvahed in the Portsmouth Synagogue,” he said.

The now US-based writer, who has scripted two episodes of Dr Who and whose dark children’s tale Coraline was turned into a film, has delighted fans with the promised return of his comic-book character