A former gangster once described as the most dangerous man in Scotland has sold the film rights to his latest novel to Walt Disney for more than £2m.

Jimmy Boyle was jailed for the murder of a rival in Glasgow in 1967.

But now the Disney corporation has agreed to pay the 59-year-old £2.1m for his new novel, A Stolen Smile - which describes how the Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre in Paris and ends up on a grim Scottish housing estate.

He said he finally agreed to sell the film rights to Disney after a weekend of tense negotiations at his luxurious new house in Marrakesh, Morocco.

"I feel I've done my hard time and now someone up there has decided to shower me with good luck," Boyle said.

"I plan to spend most of the money on various charity projects. It's my 60th birthday in May so to celebrate I'm making it a year of giving, because I never thought I'd reach this age.

"I'm past the age where I would have a huge blow-out. I'm not interested in that sort of thing any more."

Boyle lives in the Cap d'Antibes on the French Riviera but in January he plans to move to the house he has just bought in Morocco, where he intends to set up three schools in rural areas where the illiteracy rate is 98%.

The multimillion pound book deal was finally closed after a weekend of tense negotiations with Disney representatives. "My agent did an amazing job," he said. "People moan about them taking a 10% cut but when we are talking about these sums then I'm certainly not complaining. He's totally welcome to the money."

Boyle, the son of a well-known robber, was jailed for attacking William Rooney with a bottle when he was 20. After his arrest in a London pub, he was sent to a special unit at Barlinnie prison in Glasgow which specialises in rehabilitation.

In 1977, 10 years into his sentence, an art teacher gave him a lump of clay and he tried his hand at sculpture. Today his works sell for up to £10,000.

His new novel has been described as a satire on conceptual art, but it is not yet clear how Disney intends to transfer it to the big screen.

Last year his life story became the subject of a French film, La Rage et le Rêve des Condamnés (The Anger and Dreams of the Condemned). He wrote the first part of his autobiography, A Sense of Freedom, while still in prison.

Speaking about his move to Marrakesh, he said: "I'm the sort of person who feels the need to keep moving.

"There is a certain ruggedness and total unpretentiousness about the place which really attracts me."