Monday 9 January 2017

You have been warned

Andy Lee’s bespoke “Do Not Open This Book” was penned for his nephew.


Comedian Andy Lee of Hamish & Andy fame, became a children's book author after publishing 'Do Not Open This Book' as a present for his nephew George's first birthday.

Andy told The Project that originally he "wanted to surprise my sister. I've got a nephew, George, who's about to turn one. I thought writing a book for him as his birthday present would be a nice thing to do."

"I wrote it up, I gave it to my best mate who's a kid's books publisher and I said 'Can you just make one copy for me?'. He rang me back a few weeks later and said 'I asked the other publishers and they'd like to print this'. I said 'Nah mate, give us the one copy'."

But Lee finally gave him the okay, provided that they held back until Andy had surprised Alex and George on his birthday.

"We did manage to surprise my sister. It was little George's birthday and we managed to set up a bookstore with the book in it and as I was taking my sister out to lunch I managed to show her the surprise."

Andy rigged up a bookstore with cameras to capture Alex's heartfelt reaction before Hamish swooped in to interview little George.

Funnily enough, his friends' children have actually been scared by 'Do Not Open This Book'. "Do not buy this book anyone," warned Andy (well you could buy it after you've borrowed it from your library).

"It is about this little character who's trying to convince the reader not to turn the pages. He uses all sorts of tricks, reverse psychology, all these things, but watching a couple of kids read it, I've taken it around to a few of my mates houses, and some of them are too petrified to get to the end."

Adults and parents though love it, a great combination between Andy and illustrator Heath McKenzie - borrow it!.

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