Top children's author Andy Stanton tells of plans for musical theatre version of his Mr Gum books

Writer Andy Stanton revealed a musical version of his children's book was going to be made by the National Theatre in London, and he hoped it would go on to tour the country.

He told the Free Press about his plans before addressing an audience of hundreds of children at the Doncaster Book Awards launch at the Dome.

He said: 'The National Theatre are making a musical of a musical that I'm writing for them '“ I'm not doing the music for them, I'm not that clever '“ but its Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear, which was the fifth Mr Gum book, and its coming out next summer in London, and then hopefully its going to tour the country after that.

'I'm going to do my best to make it really weird '“ but all my stuff comes out really weird so there should be no problem there!'