Gruffalo author's grandchildren help tell new tale

Fans were treated to the launch of Donaldson's new book, Gozzle, on Saturday

Beloved children's author Julia Donaldson has treated fans in West Sussex to an exclusive reading of her latest story.

Gozzle - a tale about a gosling who adopts a reluctant bear as its daddy - was launched at Arundel Town Hall on Saturday with help from three of the writer's grandchildren.

Donaldson's writing career began when she was asked to turn the song A Squash and a Squeeze into a book. Since then she has written more than 200 titles - including The Gruffalo - and been crowned the UK's bestselling author five times in a row.

But she dismissed comparisons with Harry Potter author JK Rowling as "silly".

"Together she and I and all those other brilliant children's writers are selling more books than a lot of the best known authors that write for adults," she added.

On the inspiration for her new book, she said it was drawn from her own experiences of parenthood.

"I suppose subconsciously it's a story about being a parent and being a child because of course children never want to do the things one wants them to do, they want to do totally different things," she said.

"As soon as they get older and start to get more independent you kind of miss them and that comes into the story as well.

"The whole book is in dialogue and I think it would be fun for parents and children to read it like that, when they've read it a couple of times they could say 'oh you be Gozzle this time and I'll be the bear' or the other way around."