BEAUTY And The Beast pantomime star and Blue singer Antony Costa has paid a visit to Waterstones in York to welcome the arrival of the boy band's biography at the Coney Street bookstore.

Blue: All Rise, Our Story is the band's intimate tell-all account charting the highs and the lows of their career since 2000, the stories behind the headlines and their favourite Blue moments.

The book combines "explosive new revelations with never-before-seen photos, and all the latest updates", including Simon Webbe’s engagement and his struggle with depression; Lee Ryan’s brush with cancer; Duncan James’s devastation at the passing away of his best friend, original It Girl Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, and how Antony Costa is adapting to fatherhood all over again.

"This is the story every 2000s' teen has been waiting for, from four lads who’ve come out the other side older, wiser and closer than ever," the publicity machine says.

Costa visited Waterstones last week while in York to play gardener, petty thief and murder suspect Rodger Meadows in Ruth Rendell's psychological thriller A Judgement In Stone at the Grand Opera House.

Costa will return to the Cumberland Street Theatre to take on the transformative role of The Beast in Beauty And The Beast from December 15 to January 7.

He will be joined by Debbie McGee, at present impressing the public and judges alike in BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing, and soap stars Lynne McGranger, from Home And Away, Ken Morley, from Coronation Street, and and Stuart Wade, from Ennerdale. Tickets can be booked on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.