Zadie Smith's 'upstart' brother sparks bidding war with first book

Zadie Smith’s younger brother could soon be joining her on the best-seller charts after his children’s book sparked a bidding war with four publishers — but insists there is “no sense of competition” between the pair.

Ben Bailey Smith, who was performing as rapper Doc Brown when his sister became a literary star with White Teeth in 2000, wrote I Am Bear after several failed attempts to write a picture book.

He said: “This is on the back of 10 years of research reading to my kids, who are seven and 10, and just finding so many books are too moralistic and no good. There are some great stories out there but there is also a lot of dross.”

Bailey Smith had his earliest attempts rejected, but an old friend, illustrator Sav Akyuz, approached him with some sketches and asked him to write a story around them. The resulting book is out next month, with the first draft of the second book already with the publishers. He said: “I sent the American version out to my sister and my niece in New York and she loves it and is very proud, but there is no sense of competition.