A 'LOST' novel by Wirral-born author Malcolm Lowry will be launched during an exhibition of his work at the Bluecoat gallery in Liverpool - more than 50 years after his death. 

In Ballast to the White Sea will be feature in the venue's annual retrospective on Lowry's work, which takes place on October 25.

This autobiographical novel, described as New Brighton-born Lowry’s longest and most ambitious project of the mid‐1930s, was thought to have been lost in a fire.

It was later discovered in the New York Public Library after it become known that his first wife, Jan Gabrial, still had a typescript of the book.

Now, almost forty years after the writer’s death, the first ever published edition will be launched during a day‐long Lowry event at The Bluecoat.

The book is about a Cambridge undergraduate who wants to be a novelist but has come to believe that both his book and, in a sense, his life have already been “written” by a Norwegian novelist.

Partly set in Merseyside, its notes were compiled with the help of New Brighton Lowry expert Colin Dilnot.

Speaking about the event, the Bluecoat's artistic director, Bryan Biggs said: "We are delighted and naturally very excited to be hosting the launch of this very special novel, which further connects Malcolm Lowry to the place of his birth.

"The typescript of In Ballast to the White Sea has probably been read by at most a dozen people since Lowry scholars learned that it was deposited at the New York Public Library.

"Each year at the Bluecoat we celebrate the life and work of this local author, so it’s a privilege to launch the book at our Lowry Lounge."

The Lowry Lounge will also feature leading UK writer, Iain Sinclair who will be talk about Lowry in relation to his 2013 book American Smoke, which follows in the footsteps of the American Beat writers and of Lowry, whose writing in many ways anticipated theirs.

The event also includes a guided walk round Liverpool city centre, led by Colin Dilnot, visiting sites relating to the book and to Lowry’s childhood years on Merseyside.

Further event details are from www.thebluecoat.org.uk

Lowry was born in 1909 in New Brighton and grew up in Caldy.

After graduating from Cambridge he lived in London, New York, Mexico and Los Angeles before moving to the outskirts of Vancouver, Canada in 1939. He died in 1957.