To Kill a Mockingbird has been a literary rite of passage for more than half a century, credited with awakening thousands of teenagers to the rewards of reading.

Now, the classic portrayal of racial injustice and loss of innocence in the American Deep South is being brought to a new generation in the form of a graphic novel.

Instead of devouring Harper Lee’s humorous and astute child’s-eye prose, readers can follow the tale of Scout, Jem, Boo Radley and Atticus Finch through 260 pages of richly drawn cartoons annotated with bubbles of speech.

But the British artist commissioned to adapt the famous book has a clear message for young readers: it’s no substitute for the original.

Fred Fordham admits that when he was approached amid a “spy novel atmosphere” of secrecy to adapt the great work in 2016 it was “pretty daunting”.

“It’s almost considered more than a novel - it’s a cultural event,” he said.

However, a 10-day trip to Monroeville, Harper Lee’s Alabama hometown on which she based the fictional Maycomb of the book, the warm endorsement of the Lee Estate plus the novel’s strength of dialogue soon convinced him a meaningful adaptation was possible.