JK Rowling has announced the release of a new children's book, The Ickabog, which she's publishing in daily instalments on her website for free.

The first two chapters of the novel, aimed at 'children on lockdown, or even those back at school during these strange, unsettling times' are available now, with further chapters being posted until July 10. The British author, who first wrote the manuscript several years ago before taking a break from publishing, explained 'A few weeks ago at dinner, I tentatively mooted the idea of getting The Ickabog down from the attic and publishing it for free, for children in lockdown... so downstairs came the very dusty box, and for the last few weeks I’ve been immersed in a fictional world I thought I’d never enter again'.