Ben Folds and his band are set to tour Australia in May 2011 to promote his latest album, Lonely Avenue, a collaboration with bestselling novelist Nick Hornby.

Folds first found mainstream success in Australia in 1996 as leader of Ben Folds Five, with Australian collaborators over the past decade including Missy Higgins and Ben Lee.

His collaboration with the About a Boy author and Oscar nominee Hornby has been described by Rolling Stones magazine as "a meeting of two brilliant minds in near perfect sync".

Hornby, who often writes about music in his fiction and non-fiction, previously collaborated with Folds on a song for the William Shatner album, Has Been.