Russell Brand launches children’s books: The Pied Piper of women remakes The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The comedian lends his whimsical voice to a children's book series

Russell Brand, perceived by many as a Pied Piper of women, is turning his hand to children’s books – the first of which will be inspired by The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Entitled Russell Brand’s Trickster Tales, the series will feature illustrations by Chris Riddell.

“Once upon a time, long ago, in a time that seemed to those present, exactly like now, except their teeth weren't so clean and more things were wooden, there was a town called Hamelin,” Brand said in a video announcement.

“I know you've already heard of that. And you might think, 'Well, that isn't your story'. Yeah, I know, I've done a different version of it.”

The first of the books will launch this autumn. The news is certainly a more appealing idea than last month’s announcement that he is writing a non-fiction political book apparently revealing the “solution to internal and external turmoil”.

“It's the first of series called Russell Brand's Trickster Tales, where I do interpretations of fairy stories and folk tales, believing them to be the code to unlock aspects of our consciousness and to affect and impact the way we see the world,” he said. “Once we start changing the way children see the world… we can do all sorts of stuff.”

The comedian-come-aspiring revolutionary has penned two tomes before; his autobiography, Booky Wook, in 2007 and a sequel 2010, and Irons in the Fire in 2007, which focused on his love of football.