THE designer of the hit children's TV series Bob the Builder will be at Borders on Saturday for a book signing session.

Children's author and illustrator, Curtis Jobling, will be at the Riverside Retail Park between 11am and 3pm to sign copies of his book Frankenstein's Cat.

In a spin on the gothic tale of Frankenstein's monster, the story is of a cat called Nine' who rather than having nine lives, was made from nine cats, one of which was a very smelly alley cat leaving the hapless Nine struggle for friends because of his odour.

The picture book is scheduled to hit the TV screens in January as a children's animation for the BBC with Joe Pasquale as the voice of Nine and Alex Kelly as Lottie, Nine's partner-in-mischief and sole friend.

Billed as an anarchic children's comedy for six to 11-year-olds by production company Mackinnon and Saunders, who have worked on Tim Burton's Mars Attacks and The Corpse Bride, Frankenstein's Cat is set to be made into 30 episodes and will air first in France on Halloween.

Curtis said: "The book was written in 2001. I was on a train from Warrington Bank Quay to Euston and I set myself the challenge of coming up with the idea of a new picture book.

"By the time I got to Euston I had drawn the first picture and written the opening two paragraphs.

"The TV show is based on the book. Nine is joined by four other Frankenpets and his best friend Lottie, who is a girl child who doesn't fit in anywhere but they do fit together."

Curtis grew up in Warrington and returned to Great Sankey in the spring with his wife, Emma, and three children Andrew, Evie and Lottie after living in Yorkshire for five years.

His other books include Dinosaurs After Dark, Skeleton's in the Closet, My Daddy and Cheeky Monkey.

On Saturday Curtis will also be signing his other books and showing children how to draw some of his characters.