A mother-of-two has penned a series of children’s books inspired by her daughter’s imaginary kitten.

Pip Jones, who lives in Elmsdale Road in Walthamstow, is a writer by trade but Squishy McFluff: The Invisible Cat! is her first children’s book.

“When Ava was about two-and-a-half she suddenly produced this imaginary kitten out of nowhere,” she said.

“At the time I was writing a column about the terrible twos and I wrote about this – she wanted to feed it and pet it and she said we kept sitting on it – it was very sweet and very funny.”

Having amassed stories about her daughters Ava and Ruby for a parenting column, she decided to turn these into tales for children.

“This particular one [the imaginary kitten] stood out and inspired the first draft of the first book,” she said.

Squishy McFluff is found by a character, also called Ava, in the garden and swiftly proceeds to cause some mischief, Ms Jones said.

She added that her book, published by Faber and Faber, is spearheading a new direction for the publishing house.

“It’s wonderful,” she said.

“They’ve never done picture books for children and it’s part of the new list.”

Due for release on February 6, The Invisible Cat! is the first of four books to be released at six month intervals.