A regional daily editor has penned a series of children’s books which aim to tackle bad habits such as breaking wind, nose-picking and refusing to brush your teeth.

Northern Echo editor Peter Barron has written 10 Monstrous Morals books, with the first in the series Fartin’ Martin Sidebottom due to be published on Saturday.

The book, subtitled ‘The boy who couldn’t stop breaking wind,’ is aimed at 5-10-year-olds and their parents and is illustrated by Northern Echo graphic artist David Wright.

And Peter said if the books were successful, he would love to become a full-time children’s author at some point in the future.

He said: “I have done 10 of them but it is obviously testing the market to see what happens with the first one. It has taken a year to get the first one published. Ultimately I want them to be a collection rather than an individual book.

“I just started writing them when I went on holiday. They are all done in rhyme. I have got four kids and every parent goes through that time when their children go through bad habits.

“It is to help parents in a fun way to get a message across to kids. I don’t think there’s anything else out there that particularly focuses on kids’ bad habits in a light-hearted way.

“I have always had an ambition to write children’s books. As an adult, I love Roald Dahl books. I would love to give myself the chance to be a full-time children’s writer at some point in the future.”

Peter will be signing copies of the book at Waterstones in Darlington on 15 December.  Tweeting about the event, he wrote: “Just bought load of whoopee cushions for the Fartin’ Martin book signing. It’s gonna be rude!”

David has already started work on illustrating the second book, which will be called Black-toothed Ruth Black and is about a girl who never brushes her teeth.

Future characters in the series will include Nose-Picker Nick, Grubby Joe Grub, Scary Hairy Mary, Excessively Messy Bessie, Chilly Billy Winters, Gobby Nobby Robinson and Smelly Simon Smedley.

The first book can be purchased from Amazon and for further information about the books, click here.