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Children's author, illustrator, screenwriter

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News

Big Sky Mountain launches

10 June, 2021 by Alex

It’s Big Sky Mountain day! (Also known as Dress Like A Moose Day! – in my house, anyway) Out now in all the wonderful independent bookshops and online stores of the world!

Big Sky Mountain is the first book in my new series and I feel a celebration is in order. Obviously, launching a book is a reason to celebrate in itself, but so much has happened over the past eighteen months that I’ve been working on it, it feels like a particularly big achievement.

The world has definitely changed, and my world equally so. I certainly didn’t see a move to the seaside, or a global pandemic coming, and nothing changes how much work goes into making a book. When you have two children to homeschool for most of a year, you realise just what a task it is (especially when you decide to move home in the middle of it all.)

I know many other authors and illustrators have dealt with similar issues, and to that I absolutely salute them. I also hope that one day soon I’ll share a beer with them. (Goodness, those days can’t be too far away?)

It’s been quite an emotional thing making Big Sky Mountain. This new series came out of a desire to write about the wilderness, and the natural world, but it was about my relationship with my gran. I dedicated it to her for good reason.

While she had many years bed-bound towards the end of her life, in her younger days, gran was always so full of energy. She’d easily outlast me on those long walks across the Malvern Hills, and still come home ready to cook tea and knit into the wee hours. She’d always be the first to swim in the sea on holidays, putting me absolutely to shame, and there was a real sense of fearlessness about her.

Gran could be difficult and definitely rubbed people up the wrong way at times (including me,) but that was all part of what made her into the force she was – and she was definitely a force of nature.

There are many stories about her, but one I remember particularly well was when a car crashed on the busy road outside her flat late one night. She rushed outside with her St John’s Ambulance training and jumped right into the thick of it all.

As a young lad, you don’t realise what it takes to do that. Now I do.

As for the story, what started out as a tale about a pair of eager beavers settling nearby, became a book about becoming part of a new community, possibly even a family, and learning to fit in and survive.

It’s a story about doing good in the world, learning to look after yourself and finding your own place to fit in, and I’m really excited about that.

In many ways it feels much like Hotel Flamingo. There are jokes, animals – lots of new characters – and there’s even a little sadness, but I think it’s a little bit more personal, and there’s a lot of me in it. I hope you like it; it was a real joy to make 🙂

(By the way, if you want to watch the vide of me singing a song as Albert the Moose, you can find it here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CP7ovT7qWUV/)


Competition – Enter here!

If you haven’t entered the competition to win one of four signed copies of Big Sky Mountain along with an original illustration, you can enter now! The more people you share it with, the more chances of winning you have!

Filed Under: Big Sky Mountain, Books, News

Win a signed copy of Big Sky Mountain and original artwork

8 June, 2021 by Alex

I’ve got four signed copies of Big Sky Mountain, each with an original pencil illustration from the book to give away!

All you have to do is head to the competition page and answer a simple question to be entered into the draw! The competition is running for a week, and the more you share it with friends, the more chances to win you get.

Good luck!

Get your entry in now!

Enter here!

Filed Under: Big Sky Mountain, Books, Competitions, News Tagged With: alex milway, Big Sky Mountain, Competition

Big Sky Mountain – Pre-order now!

7 June, 2021 by Alex

Me holding copies of Big Sky Mountain

This week sees the publication of Big Sky Mountain, the first in a new series, all about a young girl called Rosa, who goes to live with her gran in the wilderness.

The story is really important to me, born out of my relationship with my grandma, who would always take me ‘trekking’ up the Malvern Hills.

She’d march us up there, come rain or shine. It really helped foster my love of the outdoors, and hills in particular.

The stories are stuffed full of my favourite things, such as canoeing, sitting around campfires, a friendly moose, a pair of diligent and very busy beavers, and of course, cabins.

I hope you like this world of Big Sky Mountain as much as I do!

Buy your copy!


It’s lovely weather here today. We moved to the seaside six months ago, so you can imagine we have been making the most of the glorious weather. Lots of swimming in the sea! Because I don’t have lovely thick fur like the beavers in Big Sky Mountain, I have to admit to being a big fan of the wetsuit. If you follow me on Instagram, I’m sure you’ll have seen a LOT of photos of us on the beach – whatever the weather!

I’ve got some freebies to give away in the coming days, so stay tuned!

Filed Under: Big Sky Mountain, Books, Competitions, News Tagged With: alex milway, Big Sky Mountain

Hotel Flamingo Life In Lockdown – Free Book!

2 December, 2020 by Alex

Alex Milway Hotel Flamingo Free Ebook

It’s been a difficult year for everyone, but how have the guests and staff at HOTEL FLAMINGO coped with life in lockdown?

Join Anna, T.Bear, Madame Le Pig and the whole gang to find out what it’s like running a hotel when you aren’t allowed new guests.

You can download your book here

(Also featuring exclusive FREE CHAPTER of my new series: BIG SKY MOUNTAIN (available for pre-order now!)

Filed Under: Books, Free Books, Hotel Flamingo, News Tagged With: alex milway

New series coming! Big Sky Mountain unveiled

1 December, 2020 by Alex

I am so excited to share this with you all!

My new series Big Sky Mountain is publishing June 2021 with Piccadilly Press (who also publish my Hotel Flamingo series).

It got wilderness, adventure, and lots of fun! It was a dream to write. It’s a story about a girl called Rosa who goes to live with her ‘Grandma Nan’ in a cabin in the wilderness.

Nan teaches Rosa how to survive in a very different landscape to the one she was used to. The mountain is home to many other colourful creatures; some friendly, some grumpy, some scary, but all important to the wider ecosystem.

In the first book Rosa meets a pair of beavers…

All of the stories in the Big Sky Mountain series will discuss keystone species. These are species that make a massive difference to our planet, and are incredibly important for all of us…

It’s quite a personal book. Not only is the subject very important to me, it’s also inspired by the relationship I had with my own gran, who would always march me up the Malvern Hills as a boy.

I hope you like it!

You can pre-order here, which is incredibly exciting! http://bit.ly/bigskymountain

PS. Pre-ordering makes a big difference to sales charts, so I’d be really thrilled if you did — but only if you want to obviously! http://bit.ly/bigskymountain

Filed Under: Big Sky Mountain, Books, News Tagged With: alex milway, Early Readers, Hotel Flamingo

Art Classes with Alex Milway

21 October, 2020 by Alex

Half term is upon us already! Who can believe it?! If you’re stuck in lockdown, I thought you might enjoy this series of videos I made, which are up on my YouTube channel.

As well as silly songs, word games and a reading from one of my books, each video has a ‘How to Draw’ section, where I take you through the simple techniques I use to draw some of my most-loved characters (including Harold from Pigsticks and Harold and T. Bear and Madame Le Pig from Hotel Flamingo.)

How to Draw T. Bear

How to Draw Harold The Hamster

How to Draw Madame Le Pig

x

Alex


Win a Pin Badge!

If you draw one the characters, please do send me a photo! I can’t promise to reply to every message, but I promise I will look at them all.

If you send to me by 1 November at 5pm I’ll pick one and send out an enamel pin badge from my new Alex Milway Shop! [COMPETITION NOW CLOSED]

Filed Under: Books, Competitions, Hotel Flamingo, Pigsticks and Harold

Hotel Flamingo wins Brilliant Book Award 2020

11 September, 2020 by Alex

Wow! This was a hard one to keep under my hat! I’m absolutely thrilled to announce Hotel Flamingo is the winner of the Brilliant Book Award 2020!

Even better, it was voted the winner by hundreds of primary school children!

The new award, developed by Lancashire’s School Library Service, involves thousands of children from Lancashire primary schools reading new books and voting for their favourite. The main aim of the award is to encourage children aged six and seven years to develop a love of reading.

Isn’t that great?!

Thank you so much for the children of Lancashire for voting for Hotel Flamingo! I’m truly chuffed.

You can watch my acceptance speech (and a bit of drawing) here.

(I should also mention that Hotel Flamingo was longlisted for the North Somerset Teachers’ Book Awards 2019 too)

IMG_7827.jpg

Filed Under: Books, Hotel Flamingo, News Tagged With: alex milway, Awards, Hotel Flamingo, Lancashire Book Awards

Hotel Flamingo: Fabulous Feast out now!

25 August, 2020 by Alex

My fourth Hotel Flamingo book, Fabulous Feast, launched during lockdown. (You can buy it now!)

Normally, I’d have been off out and about doing school events and painting shop windows to celebrate the launch of my fourth Hotel Flamingo book. But lockdown put paid to all that and I was left making do with our front windows at home.

Anna was ready to welcome everyone!

Photo by Alex Milway on May 10, 2020. Image may contain: outdoor, text that says 'HOTEL MING'.
Photo by Alex Milway on May 10, 2020. Image may contain: outdoor.
As you can see, the team clocked in for work despite of the corona crisis! That’s dedication!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_h0OYQnvJd/

It wasn’t quite as fun as getting out to spend time with children in schools or reading in bookshops, but it certainly brightened up the house – and we enjoyed watching everyone stop to stare at it on their daily exercise.

Here’s a little video I did for Waterstones with a reading from Fabulous Feast.

Filed Under: Books, Hotel Flamingo, News Tagged With: Early Readers, Fabulous Feast, Hotel Flamingo

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Little Shop of Magic

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From the bestselling author and illustrator of Hotel Flamingo comes a charming and hilarious new illustrated book all about what it takes to run a shop for magical folk. When Vicky Lightfoot goes to work at her Auntie Wyla’s magical supplies shop in Twilight Forest, she must learn what it takes to make spells, source rare and […]

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