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Children's author, illustrator, screenwriter

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News

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

Pigsticks and Harold: Harold and Granny Pickle – Free Book

10 May, 2021 by Alex

My mum died from a rare form of cancer in 2014. Her death shocked everyone who knew her. At the time, I found it particularly difficult talking about it to my young daughters and nieces.

In trying to broach the subject, and somehow explain how a person lives on in memories and the things you do every day, I wrote a story about Harold the Hamster and his granny. It talks about what happens when someone you know and love isn’t there anymore.

Writing it was as difficult as you would imagine! Although this story is deeply personal to me, I hope it will resonate with you, and maybe help children understand and come to terms with losing a loved one.

You can download the free PDF here.

Filed Under: Books, Free Books, Pigsticks and Harold Tagged With: alex milway, Freebies

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!
View this post on Instagram

Stella Giraffe has come to work! #HotelFlamingo #penge

A post shared by Alex Milway (@alexmilway) on Apr 28, 2020 at 7:45am PDT

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

How to draw T Bear from Hotel Flamingo

28 April, 2020 by Alex

At the start of the lockdown I made some videos of me reading extracts from my books, teaching you how to draw some of my characters, and singing some very silly songs I wrote.

In this first one, I read an extract from the first Hotel Flamingo Book and teach you all my super-easy method for drawing T Bear! So have a look and you’ll be drawing bears with faces like fried eggs in no time!

Head over to Bookazini to watch more and please hit Like and subscribe!

Filed Under: News

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Latest book out now!

Big Sky Mountain

By Alex Milway

Welcome to Big Sky Mountain: a home for everyone!

Rosa has come from the city to live with Grandma Nan in the wilds of Big Sky Mountain. And what surprises are in store for her! Grandma Nan is not exactly an ordinary grandma, and Big Sky Mountain is like nowhere Rosa has dreamed about before. Grandma Nan lives in an old wooden cabin with Albert the moose and Little Pig the pygmy owl, and spends every day out on adventures. From canoeing down rapids to making friends with the local animals, life never stays still for long on Big Sky Mountain!

An exhilarating new series set in the great outdoors, from HOTEL FLAMINGO author Alex Milway.

An excellent early reader book for children aged 4-8

Funny and charming; Alex Milway has made me want to fly right into Big Sky Mountain myself. – Andy Shepherd, author of The Boy Who Grew Dragons

I want to go to Big Sky Mountain! It’s the rugged wilderness, but much softened by a comfy bear who’s a travelling salesman, a moody architect hare and some busy builder beavers who still have to learn about how to get along with the rest of the community. – Sarah McIntyre, illustrator of Pugs of the Frozen North

This is a perfect, big-hearted adventure story, with pictures and laughs on every page and an environmental message delivered with the lightest touch. Once you have met the wonderful cast of talking animals, warmed to Nan’s peculiar ways and found your feet in the wilderness, like Rosa you’ll never want to leave Big Sky Mountain. – Clara Vulliamy

As a HUGE fan of feisty grandmothers I LOVED Grandma Nan in Big Sky Mountain! Wise, capable and fearless, she is the perfect role model for her granddaughter Rosa. A wild adventure with an important message, bravo! – Sophy Henn, author and illustrator of Bad Nana

The perfect adventure to rewild young readers – Benji Davies, author and illustrator of Grandad’s Island

Out now!

Available in all good book shops.

Bookshop.org

Waterstones

Amazon

Read more about it here

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