An unpublished book by Maurice Sendak, the author of children’s classic Where the Wild Things Are, has been unearthed from his archives, five years after his death.

The manuscript and illustrations, titled Presto and Zesto in Limboland, co-authored by Mr Sendak’s long-time collaborator Arthur Yorinks, were found in Connecticut in the United States, by his assistant, Lynn Caponera last year.

Created in 1990, the work is due to be published in the autumn of 2018.

Mr Sendak’s long-time editor Michael di Capua told Publishers Weekly: “What a miracle to find this buried treasure in the archives. To think something as good as this has been lying around there gathering dust.”

Mr Sendak, born in New York City to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents, was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996 by then-US President Bill Clinton.

Published in 1964, Where the Wild Things Are told the story of Max, an imaginative boy who is transported to a magical world of animals and monsters after he is sent to bed without his supper. It was made into a live-action film, directed by Spike Jonze, in 2009.

Mr Sendak, who died in 2012 aged 83, spoke in his later life of the impact on his work of the Holocaust, in which many members of his extended family perished.