Fairytales may have been around the block a few times, but renowned children's author Philip Pullman is set to be the next innovator of 50 Brothers Grimm stories - and the date and the publisher has just been revealed.
Fans of His Dark Materials trilogy will be pleased to know that Pullman is sticking to producing the children's books for adults he has become so famous for. Last year, he told Bridge to the Stars fansite that the collection of fairytales wouldn't be a "book for children only" - meaning adults too can enjoy the new publication guilt-free.
He is quoted on the website saying “I’m telling the best of the tales in my own voice, and I’m finding it a great purifier of narrative thinking, rather as a pianist relishes playing Bach’s preludes and fugues as a sort of palate-cleansing discipline.”
According to the Guardian, readers can expect to get their hands on the book on 6 September, courtesy of Penguin Classics.
Pullman has chosen his favourite of the Grimm fairytales, which date from the early 1800s, including better-known classics alongside the more sinister, to give his own "cleansing" re-vamp.
The Grimms' tales aren't known for their child-friendly nature - in which evil sisters lose their toes, evil stepmothers dance to death in red-hot iron shoes and evil, well, anything, come to a sticky end - but we're not expecting Pullman to sweeten any pills either. After all, scalping, poison and soul-severing all featured heavily in His Dark Materials. No doubt come September we'll be reading it with the lights on.