Acting, singing and comedy icon Sir Lenny Henry took to our screens this morning to discuss his newest children's book with ITV's Lorraine Kelly.

The Boy with Wings, which Henry admitted took nine months to complete, stars Tunde, a black, adopted boy in his early teenage years with the unique abilities to communicate with birds and eventually, grow a set of wings.

Speaking to the Scottish chat show host, Henry revealed: "First of all, he [Tunde] is bird-centric. Birds like him. Whenever he gets emotional, birds react. Then, he suddenly sprouts wings in the middle of a football match and then has the responsibility of having to save the planet."

When asked by Lorraine whether the story of Tunde reflects Henry's own childhood, he joked: "It's about a boy who sprouts wings in the middle of a football match, it's not my story! It is kind of similar to being 12/13 and realising you can do something or you have a secret that nobody knows about.

"I was bullied at school, as I've said before, and I managed to get through it because of my sense of humour. Victoria Wood used to say, 'If somebody says something, just say something back' and I think that's a good watch word to have.

"What a great story, I guess, you could equate it with being in show business but only by this much."

Henry told Lorraine that he had been inspired by superheroes since he was a child, and it was this that led to the creation of the winged warrior.

"The superhero origin story, although it's not based on anything, it is very inspired by Tony Stark making a suit of armour to fight the enemy, or Peter Parker being bitten by a radioactive spider and becoming Spiderman. It's not copying those things, but it's inspired by those things because I read all of those things when I was a kid.

"Tunde is very close to my heart. I'm really proud of it."

Henry told Lorraine that he was inspired by other black authors such as Malorie Blackman and Nadia Shireen.

Despite already having released a handful of novels for aimed at young readers, the 63-year-old television icon disclosed that he had initial anxieties about writing books for kids.

He said: "Having done panto, I really, really know - if kids don't like it, they just go, "No! Next!' I was at a school yesterday doing a reading when some kids came up the stairs and one of the kids saw the book and went, "The Boy with Wings, that looks great, I'm going to get it', and another kid said, 'Is is going to be a movie?'. I said 'well, maybe, but it's a book first' and he said, 'I'm going to wait till it's a movie!'"

Henry also spoke out about the progression towards greater inclusion of minorities in the media and show business.

"I think there's a will now - there's more of a will now than there was 10 years ago - to make change. It's still slow but I think that, particularly with the recent lockdown and Covid, people are more than willing to kind of go, 'Let's not just get things back onto an even keel, let's try and push the conversation further down the road'. There's a willingness to have the conversation, whereas 10/15 years ago, people were just ignoring it."

"What's great about the children's book publishing thing is, they've listened, and there are now many more black and brown authors in the shop windows.

"There's so many great people out there, Malorie Blackman and Nadia Shireen, and people like that.

"You get a real sense that people are trying to be more inclusive in the book publishing industry and that's great.

"Kids need to see themselves in stories, because when we were growing up we had Oliver Twist and we had The Famous Five and Jennings, who are all great but none of them had a black friend."

Henry concluded by revealing that there would be plenty of additions to Tunde's story and about saving the planet

The Boy with Wings, illustrated by African-American artist, Keenon Ferrell, is available to purchase from today.

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