Paul McCartney pens picture book about a magical grandfather

Paul McCartney has written a picture book, inspired by his experiences as a grandfather, which will be published by Puffin in the UK and Random House Children’s Books in the US.

Hey Grandude! is about a magical grandfather - the eponymous Grandude - and his four grandchildren, and is described by Puffin as being both a heartwarming family story and an adventure tale with a twist of magic.

The former Beatle said: “I’ve got eight grandchildren and they’re all beautiful and one day one of them said to me “Hey Grandude!”. I said “What?” and I thought, I kind of like that, so from then on I was kind of known as Grandude. So I thought, you know what, it’s actually a nice idea for a book, so I started to write some stories, and then I talked to the book publishers and they liked what I was doing.

“So basically it’s about a character called Grandude who represents grandfathers everywhere. He has four grandchildren and he calls them 'chillers'. They love him and they go on adventures with him and he’s kind of magical, so you’ll see that in the book. I wanted to write it for grandparents everywhere – and the kids – so it gives you something to read to the grandkids at bedtime.”

 

 

Penguin Random House Children’s m.d. Francesca Dow and Random House Children’s Books president and publisher Barbara Marcus acquired world rights from Richard Ewbank at MPL Communications.

The book will be illustrated by Kathryn Durst, who is represented by Arabella Stein at The Bright Agency, and published in September 2019.

A video of McCartney talking about the book is available on

 and the title is pre-order on the PRH website.

McCartney was the subject of a biography, written with his blessing and published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2015. He also contributed to a vegetarian cookbook in 2011.