The books we loved as children never quite leave us as adults.

Whether it's those we had read to us, the first stories we powered through unaided or the shock and delight of discovering characters who thought and felt the way we did, our memories are testament to the power and importance of children's literature.

And age does nothing to diminish our love of our favourite authors, as evidenced in the newly discovered Beatrix Potter tale from 1914 climbing the UK book charts months before it's even published.

The Tale of Kitty in Boots, due for release autumn 2016, was discovered by editor Jo Hanks while researching another project. Stumbling across a reference by the author to a story “about a well-behaved prime black Kitty cat, who leads rather a double life”, Hanks tracked down drafts in the V&A's archives and got illustrator Quentin Blake on board.

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