Nessie: Have you seen him?
A collection of Nessie material including Highland-based adventures of Dr Who and Donald Duck's encounter with the famous monster is set to go on display in Inverness.
The 1963 sixth edition of J A Carruth’s Loch Ness and its Monster - one of the earliest books ever written about the monster legend - is also part of the collection.
On Friday it was revealed that the exhibition at Inverness Library is set to coincide with the Easter school holidays. American writer and lifelong Nessie fan James Jeffrey Paul donated the about 100 books, magazines, comics, videos and DVDs, which he collected for 40 years.
It includes a book titled Dr Who and the Loch Ness Monster which accompanied an episode of the popular BBC television series in the mid 1970s and a Disney book about Donald Duck and Nessie. There are also photographs, details about the loch's underwater topography and sonar readings.
Mr Paul, 47, who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, donated his collection to the Inverness Library after completing his own novel, called "Wonder of Ness", because the city has provided Nessie "a beautiful home for so long".
The American author had collected the material from the age of seven, when a family friend bought him a book called The Great Orm of Ness. This immediately captured his imagination and sparked a fascination with everything related to the monster.
Mr Paul, who first visited Loch Ness ten years ago and has been back on another two occasions, said: "Over the years I've collected and studied just about every book on the subject ever written and just about every movie on the subject ever made.
"I hope to visit during Easter while the collection is on special display. But if that's not feasible then I'll certainly visit my old friends when I return on the occasion of my book's publication.
"I'll feel very proud, of course, and a little nostalgic, but not very sad. Others need my collection now far more than I do."
Senior library assistants Sue Skelton said the library was delighted with the range and eclectic nature of the donation.
She said: "There are some really unusual and interesting things. We do get donations to the library but nothing ever like this before. This really is a one-off and there are a lot of children's books as well."
