From Macavity to the Rum Tum Tugger, they are some of the best-loved cats in the country. Now the characters from TS Eliot’s feline poems are to be given a well-deserved makeover.

Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, originally published by Faber & Faber in 1939, is to emerge in a new version – with illustrations by the artist best known for his depiction of the Gruffalo, the beastly creature with “terrible teeth in his terrible jaws”.

The new creations by Axel Scheffler, a German-born illustrator who lives in London, are likely to be as eagerly awaited by figures in the political world as by young families. Gordon Brown’s modus operandi is said to bear more than a passing resemblance to that of the Mystery Cat, Macavity, who honed the knack of slinking away at times of mayhem and misdemeanour – “You’ll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs, / Or engaged in doing complicated long-division sums.”

Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats has been an international success since it first appeared and has never been out of print. Translated into many languages, it was turned into the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats, which won a clutch of awards and became one of the longest-running shows in London’s West End.

The book’s best known illustrator was Nicolas Bentley, who drew his version of the cats in the 1941 edition before he revised them in 1953.

The new version of the book, to be published next year, will use Scheffler’s colour illustrations. It will appear in a year that is both the 70th anniversary of Eliot’s original and the 80th of Faber & Faber itself. “It’s also a little bit of a personal project for me as Faber published my very first illustrated books 20 years ago,” Scheffler said.

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