Sir Lenny Henry is to publish a series of books for children.

Macmillan Children's Books won a seven-way auction for the rights to the comedy star's creations.

The books are classified as "middle-grade", a category aimed at children aged roughly between eight and twelve years old.

The comedian's debut fiction book, currently un-untitled, will publish in autumn 2021, and his picture book You Can Do Anything, Tyrone will be in shops in the autumn 2021.

Macmillan is set to run a competition in which it asks members of the public, of all ages, send in their drawings of how they imagine Tyrone looks. The best will be published in the first book.

Henry says: "This is an incredibly exciting moment of my life; I was a voracious reader throughout my childhood even though there were not that many books in our house. I joined Dudley Library at the behest of my Auntie Pearl and from that moment on I was a regular customer, immersing myself in the parallel universes of Just William, Enid Blyton and C S Lewis. When I thought about writing for children, all my favourite authors sprang to mind - big respect to all of them. To contribute to such a hallowed canon is the biggest thrill ever."

Belinda Rasmussen from Macmillan Children's Books comments: "As soon as we heard Sir Lenny Henry was turning his enormous talent to writing for children, we knew MCB had to be his publisher.... Readers across the globe will be buzzing to get their hands on his books and MCB is the publisher to get them there."