A writer suffering from cancer has been nominated for a prestigious American book award.

Peter Burton, 59, from Brighton, has been shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award.

The Lambdas recognise outstanding achievement in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literature.

Mr Burton has been nominated for editing an anthology called Serendipity: The Gay Times Book Of New Stories.

His nomination has been particularly welcome as he is still recovering from a prostate cancer operation.

He said: "I've been nominated three times before so hopefully it's third time lucky. It would be nice to get an award."

Mr Burton, who has worked in publishing since leaving school at 15, said there was a real need for an award specifically for gay fiction.

He said: "It is not exactly neglected by publishers but authors can have a problem breaking into the mainstream.

"It's especially nice to be nominated for a Lambda because for some reason my work gets more recognition in America than here."

A Brighton resident for 30 years, Mr Burton has also travelled the world as a publicist.

His biography of Rod Stewart, A Life On The Town, was written after many years working with the rock star.

Growing up in the Sixties, he lived through key moments in the history of the gay community, working in underground Soho clubs and meeting figures like Quentin Crisp.

He said: "I've known times when homosexuality was a criminal offence, now it's pretty much accepted.

"In some respects we've benefited from being much more open but in literary terms it's allowed a lot of sloppy and pretentious writing in.

"A lot of the gay fiction you see is imported American porn.

"The Lady Chatterly case brought down all the barriers and I'm not sure it's an entirely good thing."

Mr Burton is now settled with his cat Ruby in a Kemp Town house.

He said: "People think it must be tragic being ill if you're gay and single but if you're any kind of human being you have a good network of friends.

"I've taken the whole thing with a certain amount of sang-froid."