Authors

Welcome to our Author page.  It is our pleasure to work with these wonderful authors, helping them bring their creativity to life.

As a mother of two boys, Lisa enjoys bedtime stories that are considered a treasured ritual. Particularly rhyming, catchy picture books where her boys marvel at the illustrations, get engrossed in the characters and enjoy the rhythm of the poetry.

Lisa has always enjoyed writing poems and has written many for family and friends over the years to summarise a person, memory or experience, and she toyed with the idea of writing a children’s book.

Born and raised in Worcestershire, Lisa and her family moved from the town in which they grew up to the neighbouring countryside. Nestled within farmland, the love for farming soon took hold and so she began her own hobby farm. This new adventure has seen many big characters arise in the form of a small flock of sassy sheep, cheeky chickens, two charismatic cats (one of whom thinks he is a sheepdog), three mischievous dogs and some incredibly hysterical pet lambs (that are really dogs in disguise).

And one of the four dogs in disguise is Twig! The sweetest, smallest orphan lamb that required hand rearing last year and against all odds has thrived to this day. The sweet, strong, determined nature of this little lamb who consistently found ways to find Lisa and her sheepdog was remarkable. His strength of character is inspiring as well as endearing, providing the perfect character and almost writing her first children’s story for her. He really is an incredible little lamb who has been a joy to watch develop and build his relationship with the other lambs and natural surroundings. This story encapsulates that and can bring some heart-warming inspiration to the bedtime read. Lisa is currently working on more characters to capture in a book for you!

Jo is a mother of two young men and two Labradors (Mango & Murphy) and lives with her husband in a sleepy Norfolk village surrounded by beautiful countryside including a ruined castle.

Early in her career, Jo worked as a children’s nanny, a role she loved, and eventually became a private nanny supporting a family with an autistic child with severe epilepsy.

After starting her own family and taking a career break, Jo studied for a social sciences degree with the Open University, focusing on child development and psychology, and went on to gain a diploma in cognitive behaviour therapy. Today she continues her studies in counselling and psychotherapies.

As her own family grew up, Jo returned to work within local children’s services. She now has almost 10 years’ experience working with children and families as a senior family practitioner and private consultant, focusing on attachment-based support practices. She is a qualified facilitator in Circle of Security™ and the Solihull Approach™ which include play-based therapies and workshops.

Jo’s approach to work is to ensure that nurture is at the heart of what she does, and she believes that all behaviour is communication.

“I have always enjoyed illustrating and creating characters that children can relate to, mirroring their own struggles while trying to support children to have a voice, be empowered and build resilience.”

Jo currently works full-time in children’s services while also enjoying writing and illustrating her own books. These are based on social and emotional mental health, aimed at both children and parents/caregivers for them to read and share together.

“This will be my first published book, and I hope you enjoy it as I’ve got many more characters to bring to life!”

Brendan spent his childhood and adolescent years growing up as one of nine children on a small rural farm in the beautiful County Kilkenny in the South East of Ireland. When he wasn’t helping out on the family farm he could be found on a sports field pursuing his passion for sport. On finishing secondary school Brendan moved to London and qualified as a PE teacher. Following an opportunity to work in a special needs school he later retrained as a Primary School teacher which has seen him work in Ireland, the UK, Abu Dhabi and now Singapore!

Brendan would describe himself as a reluctant reader and writer during his primary school years but developed a passion for reading children’s illustrated stories to children during his teacher training. Following the birth of his daughter Molly he looked at children’s books in a whole new light. Reading isn’t just an activity, it is an experience. The words, illustrations, texture and even the smell of the book are part of that enjoyable and inspiring experience. Hiis son Dylan aged 9 still insists on a bedtime story every night to which Brendan gladly obliges.

While he originally wrote his stories to share with children at school for inspiration he decided to publish following encouraging feedback from colleagues, friends and students. Brendan’s first publication ‘Trouble on Farmer Dan’s Farm’ is a rhyming story illustrated by the amazingly talented Leah Rowe. All profits from this book will be donated to charities and environmental programmes globally. His aim is to show his students and his children that any of us are capable of using our talents to help make somebody else’s life that little bit better.

Julia grew up in Enfield, London and is now living in Bishop’s Stortford with her husband, Andy, and two beautiful daughters, Jazz and Jess.

She has always enjoyed writing stories, particularly those written in verse. Having two daughters has allowed her imagination to run wild and she now enjoys writing children’s books and trying them out on her girls.

Julia is keen to help children understand complex social and mental health issues from a young age and uses her stories to address this with the use of rhythm, rhyme and captivating illustrations.

For every book she publishes, she will donate a proportion of the book sales to a mental health charity.

Justin grew up and lived in a lovely rural village in East Yorkshire before moving to Northamptonshire, where he lives with his wife, Nina, and his three beautiful children.

Justin’s desire to write is very much rooted in his love of reading and writing a book is something that had been on ‘life’s list’ for many years!

Wanting to pass this love of books onto his children, Justin started to play with the idea of writing a children’s story. After completing a writing course, and after much coffee drinking and many screwed up pieces of A4, Escape from Nettle Farm (in its first incarnation) was complete! It then went through many painful rewrites and edits to get to the stage where Justin was ready to say, ‘Finished!’

Justin wanted to write something that would be fun and exciting for parents to read to children, or for children to read independently.  Escape from Nettle Farm was a finalist in the 2017 People’s Book Prize and received the Red Ribbon Award in the 2016 Wishing Shelf Book Awards. He has since published 3 more children’s books and is currently hard at work on the fourth. My Bunny, a beautiful rhyming picture book, was also a finalist in the 2017 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.

Publications
Escape from Nettle Farm, an illustrated children’s chapter book was published on 16th November 2016 for ages 6 to 10.
My Bunny, a rhyming picture book, was published on 20th November 2017 for children aged 6 and under.
Spy Danger, an illustrated children’s chapter book and the sequel to Escape from Nettle Farm, was published on 20th November 2018.
A Pirate’s Song, a pirate rhyming picture book, was published 13th June 2019.

You can find out more about Justin and get signed copies of his books at www.justindavis.co.uk. He is also on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Joanne grew up in South Tyneside, North East of England where she lived with her parents and older sister.  Joanne now lives in Newcastle with her husband Ian, young son Seth and beloved dog Skittles.

Being the quieter of the two sisters Joanne would often go off and make up her own games, she loved using her imagination from a very young age.  She has always loved to read, from a very early age she would spend many hours reading and drifting away into her own world with the characters she loved.  This is what Joanne wants for the children who read her stories, she wants them to always have a safe place to go that is enchanting and allows them to be children.  Joanne loves the thought of children getting lost in books and travelling to places only their imagination can take them.

Joanne worked in early education for 15 years before she decided go back to University and study a PGCE specialism in Learning Difficulties and Disabilities and now works in Further Education.  Supporting people to grow and follow their own path is something Joanne is very passionate about.

Katy was born in Charlton, South East London. ‘Family first’ was instilled into the core of her childhood values and she grew up with the best support team she could have ever wished for. Her parents taught her that she could be whatever she wanted to be in life, so long as she was always willing to work hard and make the necessary sacrifices along the way.

Katy started Judo age 9, following in her sister’s footsteps. She achieved her black belt and at 16 became National Champion for her weight and age category. “That moment in my life will always hold a special place in my heart, mainly due to timing, as my hard work and sacrifices that I had made up to that point had finally paid off, and at the perfect time.”

The next couple of years saw Katy travel the world competing for her country, making lots of friends and memories along the way. She met Aaron, her now husband, when she was 19 and they had their first daughter Lanais when she was 21. Two and half years later they welcomed their son Noah. During this time, Katy also attended university to gain a degree in midwifery and later another degree in health visiting. She is very passionate about her work in supporting pregnant women, children and their families and proud to play a small part in their precious parenting journey.

It wasn’t until much later (12 years later) when Katy and Aaron paused for breath that they booked their wedding and tried for their 3^rd and final baby. When those two lines appeared on the test 2 months before the wedding, it felt like a dream come true. A dream that quickly came to an abrupt end, when two weeks before the wedding Katy was rushed into surgery with an ectopic pregnancy resulting in the removal of her fallopian tube.

It was during the period of time that followed that Katy used her creative side to help make sense of what had happened, scribbling thoughts and feelings down whenever she needed to offload. July 2018, she was pregnant again. Over the moon but also incredibly anxious, she continued to write her thoughts down, determined to enjoy her last pregnancy. She set herself two goals during this time; she wanted to own a business that could help support pregnant women and their families, and she wanted to write a book using her experience as a midwife, health visitor and a mum to help others bond with their growing baby during pregnancy.

In March 2019, a little earlier than planned, Katy and Aaron met their beautiful baby boy Parker, the final piece of their family puzzle. A year later, with much determination and hard work, Katy launched ‘AroMama: The Hip Health Visitor’ providing a range of award winning natural products to support pregnant women and their families, from pregnancy to newborn right through to teens and adults.

This brings us to the release of Katy’s first book, ‘Growing Bean’, pulled together from those many months scribbling her thoughts down, using her experiences both professionally and personally in the hope to promote bonding and baby brain development during pregnancy. Katy told us, “I hope this book helps and supports you as much as it has helped me.”

Our drive and passion is to inspire children to enjoy reading and equally to enjoy listening to stories being read. Storytime, in schools, libraries, community groups and in the home are some of the most powerful learning opportunities we have. As mothers, both with 3 children, we know the power of reading favourite story books again and again to our own families, which our children can still recall to this day.

All the characters in our books are based on principles of wellbeing, including connecting, learning new things, being active, being kind and being present in the moment.

Both as experienced teachers and leaders in primary education we wanted to share some of  the knowledge and wisdom we have gained in addition to enhancing children’s’ wellbeing and personal development. We have illustrated our own books as we wanted to share our love for art and creative activities as we recognise the importance of Art in education. We decided to promote our love of art by demonstrating different art skills including printing, sketching, water colour, clay work and collage. We would encourage all readers of our books to have a go at these art skills too.

 ‘We believe that art can give you the present of being present, leading to a sense of well-being and calm’

Our introductory book, ‘The Friends of Mr Bob’ is the journey of wellbeing and togetherness, centring around an interesting shape in the sky which reveals that friendship is the greatest treasure of all. The second book develops the friendship between the characters as they help Mr Bob find his own home.

The ‘Friends of Mr Bob’ book collection will provide opportunities to discuss current personal and social themes, either at home or in the classroom setting. These books offer questioning opportunities for story mapping and character analyses with the illustrations as starting points for further artistic work or enquiry skills.

Ivana was born in a beautiful coastal town of Split in Croatia. She was always drawn to stories and writing as a child and wrote her first poem ‘The Snowflake/Pahuljica’ when she was 7 years old. Her childhood imagination was sparked by the fairy tales of brothers Grimm and the Croatian ‘Andersen’, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić. The love of literature, languages and imaginary world led her to study English and German language and literature and gain a Master’s degree in both subjects. Her dissertation topic was the fantasy world of the Chronicles of Narnia.

After completing her studies, Ivana qualified as a language teacher and worked in a middle school in Split for a number of years. She was on a journey to achieve a PhD in literature when she met her future husband. Together they walked through the wardrobe from the far land of Spare Oom and have been living in Narnia ever since. Ivana has four children, two boys and two girls and she resisted the temptation of naming them Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. She hasn’t pursued her PhD.

Ever since her first son was born, Ivana has been jotting down the ideas for her picture books inspired by her life in the North of England and the yearnings for her homeland. These characters and stories are so alive in her head that she can’t wait to bring them to life on paper. She has been sharing these stories with her children and sometimes inventing them on the spot when putting the children to bed.

Ivana loves taking nature walks on the edge of the West Pennine Moors in her hometown of Bolton. Her favourite walk is the Tolkien Walk in the nearby Ribble Valley where she can envisage the scenes from the Ring Trilogy. She quenches her thirst for the sea with the visits to the Lancashire coast and North Wales which she adores. An annual summer trip to her native Dalmatian coast in Croatia is a must to help build the children’s bilingualism. Regular days out to the Lake District have always inspired her writing.

At the moment Ivana is working as a librarian and a language tutor in a college. With her children growing up, she has more time on hand for developing her picture book ideas. Her debut picture book ‘The Singing Cicada’ has been inspired by this incredible insect whose noisy song and amazing sound she misses so much. Ivana hopes that this story of fellowship, friendship and accepting who you are, will bring joy and laughter to many children and their families and teach them about this extraordinary bug. Ivana’s dream is that her books would make children more aware of the richness of different languages and sounds, help them develop their critical thinking, widen their horizons and ignite their imagination and creativity.

She dreams of getting a new allotment (which she did have 13 years ago) and building a writer’s shed in her garden. She plays a guitar and is teaching herself to play a piano. She loves free climbing and camping. And green smoothies too.

James Garner was born in Farnborough, Kent in 1977 and lived in the village of Eynsford, Dartford where he showed signs of creativity from an early age. Aged seven, James moved with his family to Maidstone, Kent where they lived in a run-down water mill which his father converted in the coming years. The setting played a huge part in the inspiration of James’s first book, “Bob and the River of Time”.

During his time in Maidstone, he exhibited and sold much of his portrait work in local galleries and took a keen interest in the nature of reality which served as a great influence in honing different creative styles.

Now living in Suffolk, James has a young daughter who also carries the passion for creativity. James spends most of his days writing and illustrating more books as well as working on private illustration contracts. His second book, ‘Denzel’s Grey Day’, is a spin-off from his first book. The protagonist is a bumble bee who seeks to restore balance to his mind and the land of Grumbledown.

You can follow James on Instagram and Twitter.

Nicky Gilbody is a qualified speech and language therapist with a background in modern foreign languages and linguistics. She grew up in North London, and after residing in various locations from Wales to Europe, she has settled in St Albans where she lives with her husband and two children.

Nicky has always enjoyed rhyming and wordplay. After spending a lot of time reading children’s books with her own young family, she decided it was time to put pen to paper herself. Atch…oops! was her first book, composed in the wee small hours and providing a welcome distraction on her commute into work. Not one to rest on her laurels, Nicky is already working on her second children’s book, Dig!

As a speech therapist, Nicky understands the importance of shared reading, and she is passionate about promoting reading with children as a way of supporting language development. In the future, she hopes to use her expertise to produce entertaining children’s books which can help to promote specific aspects of child language development.

Publications
Atch…oops!, a wonderful rhyming picture book, was published on 1st November 2019.
Dig!, Nicky’s second children’s book, is due to be published in March 2020.

You can find out more about Nicky on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Edward Glover was born in London. After gaining a history degree followed by an MPhil at Birkbeck, University of London, he embarked on a career in the British diplomatic service, during which his overseas postings included Washington DC, Berlin, Brussels and the Caribbean. He subsequently advised on foreign ministry reform in post-invasion Iraq, Kosovo and Sierra Leone. For seven years he headed a one-million-acre rainforest-conservation project in South America, on behalf of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Government of Guyana.

With an interest in 16th- and 18th-century history, baroque music and 18th-century art, in 2012 Edward was encouraged by the purchase of two paintings and a passport to try his hand at writing historical fiction. Edward and his wife, former Foreign & Commonwealth Office lawyer and leading international human rights adviser Dame Audrey Glover, now live in Norfolk, a place that gives him further inspiration for his writing.

He is chair of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Association; was until recently a trustee of the Welsh environmental charity Size of Wales; sits on the board of the King’s Lynn Preservation Trust; and is an associate fellow of the University of Warwick Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies.

When he isn’t writing, Edward is an avid tennis player and completed the 2014 London Marathon, raising £7,000 for Ambitious about Autism.

Vyridian E. Green has written her second book, a charming tale in the Ruby Red series. She was inspired to put pen to paper and share some of the highlights of her mother’s fascinating childhood. Vyridian lives in Herefordshire and when she is not writing and caring for her mother, she looks after their menagerie of animals consisting of four dogs, a cockatoo, a parrot and about a dozen chickens!

Marian started writing verses for celebratory events such as birthdays, anniversaries, engagements and even funerals. She would produce many personal verses for friends and family members and customers who would request personal details and memories be incorporated into a personal verse.

Marian’s idea for Treeture Creatures and Flowerbuds came to her whilst walking her two dogs. She was fondly remembering her days at Brownies, where they would have to name trees that began with the letters of the word Brownies. Once the list was compiled, they would head out to local parks and churchyards to try and find the leaves. Marian felt that not many children can identify trees or realise their importance. She saw an opportunity to develop some characters that could help children to remember and identify trees and leaves.

Marian was born in Hackney, London in March 1965. Her parents Anne and Sean, originally from Ireland, moved to the town of Dunstable along with her two older sisters when Marian was six months old.

After a long career in local radio and television as a reporter, DJ, producer and later a children’s presenter for British Forces Personnel overseas, Russell turned to a new career in psychology. After training, he worked for 11 years in the NHS working with children and adolescents. He specialised in treating trauma in young people and became the clinical director for a local bereavement charity before joining the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families where he is a programme director training new clinical staff for NHS teams. He has successfully run a private practice for 16 years.

Nick spent his childhood in Poole, Dorset, but now lives in Chelmsford, Essex with his wife Cheryl and two young sons. A huge sports fan, Nick has managed his eldest son’s football team, Galleywood Eagles, for the past 7 years.

Nick has always had an interest in writing as a hobby.  In his younger years, he dabbled in comedy writing, creating sitcoms and comedy sketches. He regularly blogs on Baldyman.co.uk, which is a light-hearted look at middle-age life experiences. After becoming a father, Nick fell in love with the magic of sharing stories with his children. He was particularly fascinated at how certain books above others could retain their magic and remain firm favourites despite being read repeatedly.

After being made redundant in December 2018, Nick seized the opportunity for a change of direction. With the full support of his family, he took time off to pursue his dream of getting his first book published. Sammy the Speedy Snail tells the story of a snail who gives in to his yearning for speed despite facing judgement from others for daring to be different. His subject matter was inspired by his youngest son, who has been strong enough to follow his passion for dancing despite the realisation that other boys his age might not understand his choice.

Keen as mustard, Nick has already completed the first draft of his second book. His ambition is to write a series of books that provide positive messages and can be enjoyed by children and their parents together.

Publications
Sammy the Speedy Snail, an inspiring rhyming picture book, is due for publication late 2019.

You can follow Nick on social media: he is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Stephanie grew up in the Sheffield countryside and describes herself as being a child who was ‘a bit different’ with a very vivid imagination. In an effort to fit in with her peers she would share spooky tales at the back of the school bus, and when they went down a storm and her popularity soared she realised the power of storytelling.

Stephanie is multi-talented within the creative arts. Her main passions in life are writing, books, music, and art – she is one of our featured illustrators. Until recently, she has concentrated her literary efforts on screenwriting and Eleanor Hurl the Peculiar Girl was her first foray into children’s fiction. And what a reception it had – shortlisted as a finalist in the 2018 Wishing Shelf Book Awards! 

Feeling like a misfit in her early years has been a big source of inspiration for Stephanie. The characters she writes about will often be children or young adults who are a little bit out of the ordinary. She told us, “As well as entertaining, my mission with these books is to show kids that it’s completely fine to be different. You are who you are, you like what you like and it’s all for a reason, so embrace your uniqueness.”

Stephanie is currently working on her second publication, Morty and the Monster.

Publications
Stephanie’s first children’s book, titled Eleanor Hurl the Peculiar Girl, was released in October 2018 under the pen name SL Kins.
Morty and the Monster is due for release in 2019.

A true Bristolian born and bred Tracey grew up on the edge of the city of Bristol.  Now living in Hanham with her partner Jamie and two beautiful children Eli and Millie, she only recently and slightly accidentally found her love for writing again.

In 2019 Tracey and Jamie received the official diagnosis that Eli had Autism Spectrum disorder.  Wanting to do anything she could to help her son, Tracey started writing in a style that attempted to encourage her son’s  creativity and development. In doing so her love for writing was re-born and without even knowing it her first book was happening around her.

Tracey’s books encourage children to be themselves, embrace their differences and be proud of who they are.   

It’s fair to say that Tracey’s children are her inspiration, feeding off of their little imaginations and bringing their characters to life is a dream come true.

Jo is an early years teacher and busy mum of two wonderful children. She is from the UK but has lived and worked overseas now for 13 years, working in International schools in South East Asia. Jo currently lives and works in Singapore. She loves to play, explore and discover new things with her kids, but like every mum, sometimes she needs some time to herself to relax! Jo enjoys yoga, roller skating, reading and craft activities. She loves to swim and walk in her local coastal park. Jo has been writing children’s literature and poems for many years and enjoys reading some of her works to the children she teaches! She is often inspired by the young, creative and energetic minds of the 4 and 5 year olds she teaches!

Raised in Epsom, Surrey, Cheryl now lives in Taunton with her partner and three beautiful girls aged 10, 8, and 6. A love of reading, inspired by travel books and non-fiction biographies, led to a desire to write – more specifically, to write for her children. Cheryl blogs about her life with her girls and often includes self-penned rhymes for her readers, so a rhyming children’s book seemed the obvious choice!

Cheryl also has a love of photography, and although she currently works as an administrator her ambition is to achieve her dream of being a professional writer, blogger and photographer.

Pete the Cheeky Parakeet was published in October 2018. A light-hearted and fun story about a bird with a bad attitude, it carries a message for young readers about the importance of friendship and compassion. Cheryl is currently working on her second publication, The Book of Silly Rhymes.

Publications
Pete the Cheeky Parakeet, a rhyming picture book, was published in October 2018.
The Book of Silly Rhymes was published on 20th June 2019.

You can find out more about Cheryl and read her blog at www.thesimplemum.com. She is also on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Lottie is an artist who grew up in the beautiful county of Wiltshire, where she still lives with her husband Paul, two cats, one dog and some garden chickens. Lottie has always had a passion for books, still keeping her favourite childhood books on her bookshelf.

Lottie’s animals have always been the focus of her art, but when she became grandmother to three beautiful grandchildren, she started to write and illustrate a colourful fun story about Archie their Bengal cat and his adventures with the other animals.

Not realising how much she would enjoy writing about Archie, she has ended up writing a book for each grandchild.

Archie and the chickens is the first in a trilogy of books about Archie and his adventures.

Niwatha Véronique Mathy is a French-born Sri Lankan who grew up in Rugby, England, and currently lives in London.
Before writing, she studied Accounting and Finance at university and worked for a while in Software sales. She always had a soft caring side when it came to others, but facing some personal challenges and seeing her loved ones suffer during lockdown, drove her to write.

Her new book “All My Friends Are Different”, focuses on educating young ones about mental health. She believes starting to learn at an early age and reducing the stigma associated with it are so important.

It probably takes a teacher of Psychology to do it, but Jane, a Worcester teacher, started to write short stories aimed at helping young children overcome their fear of spiders.  Before she started writing her spider stories, Jane wrote a textbook for the Extended Project qualification, which has sold well over 20,000 copies.

She had the idea after taking a group of sixth form students to a spider phobia workshop at Dudley Zoo. Jane was well aware of the psychological explanations for spider phobia.  Spiders have a pretty bad reputation because they look so different from humans and just about any other animal we know!  So she decided to do something about this and put pen to paper to write short stories for children aged five to eight. By featuring spiders as the central characters, it is hoped familiarity will lead to liking.

The ‘Cobweb Capers’ stories show these little guys are full of personality, much like the cats and dogs we share our homes with!  They include AJ, the athletic spider, who can run faster than most of the male spiders in the area; Clay, the naughty spider; Marley, the sensible spider; Mirabelle, the creative spider; and Orson, the poetic spider who only speaks in rhyme.

Spiders are a vital part of the ecosystem, but unfortunately they are often killed for no reason except irrational fear. Jane is concerned that many harmless spider species may be extinct because of the way humans react to them. Jane believes it is time to give spiders a more positive spin!

Sarah lives in Holmfirth, which she fell in love with after graduating from University where she studied Criminology. She is married with two small boys and a little girl, and thrives off the fun and chaos of her home life!

Sarah has always loved to write, but her desire to publish a children’s book began when she had her first child. She loves to create stories that will capture a child’s imagination and make them want to keep turning the pages. Sarah told us, “If I could inspire kids to read and writers to write, that would be an amazing place to be.”

Sarah’s first book, The King and The Cockerel, is a lively rhyming picture book aimed at young readers aged 5 and under. It incorporates wonderful humour and counting practice with an important message of fairness and appreciation. Sarah was almost as excited as us to discover that The King and the Cockerel had been shortlisted as a finalist in the 2018 Wishing Shelf Book Awards! Sarah is now hard at work on her second children’s book, Molly’s Magic Brolly.

As well as writing children’s books, Sarah is also working on her first book club novel. She is also a regular columnist for Mumbles Magazine, West Yorkshire.

Publications
The King and the Cockerel, a beautifully illustrated rhyming picture book, was published in August 2018.
Molly’s Magic Brolly, a beautifully illustrated rhyming picture book, was published on 22 September 2019.

You can find out more information about Sarah on Facebook and Twitter.

Patricia was born in Costa Rica, surrounded by the Tropical Rain Forest and the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. She lives in the Middle East with her husband and their two boys.

During her early adulthood, she discovered a passion for reading books that had a deeper meaning in life and especially touched her soul.

After finishing her career, she worked in Economics and Sustainability in Europe. However, the call for the awakening of her soul took her to new territories, both as a path of service and as an adventure into other lands.

Since 2010 Patricia has been a personal and spiritual growth therapist for adults and children. Connecting to our emotions is one of the main ways to understand our inner world.

Through books, Patricia hopes to bring fun and joy to children and families by telling magical and inspiring stories.

Sonia hails from Irish origins and has grown up with a passion for storytelling. She holds a degree in linguistics and a postgraduate diploma in TEFL from the University of Brighton, and until now has written purely for pleasure and for her own children.

Archie Wood-Knot’s Wonder Web is Sonia’s first published work; a contemporary rhyming story for children aged three and up following the adventures of Archie & Evie, two little garden spiders with very big ideas! Sonia feels strongly about the importance of illustrations in children’s literature and has chosen the incredibly talented Leah Rowe to illustrate her first story. A former graphic designer, Leah has recently turned her talents to illustration and started taking commissions for children’s stories earlier this year.

Sonia works as a personal assistant and lives in Berkshire with her husband and three young children.

Publications
Archie Wood-Knot’s Wonder Web, a contemporary rhyming picture book, is planned for publication on 5th March 2020.

You can find out more about Sonia on Facebook and Instagram.

Natalie grew up in a small coastal town, East London in South Africa, and moved to the UK in 2007.  After enjoying London life, she fell in love with the English countryside and now resides in Alton, Hampshire.

Her career has taken on a few twists and turns.  From starting out as a primary school teacher to dabbling in a few years in experiential marking, Natalie returned to teaching where she is passionate about early years education and encouraging a love for reading and desire to read from an early age.  She is constantly searching for fantastic stories to use in her teaching that motivate meaningful discussion and the exploration of topics through play. 

However, for years she dreamed of writing children’s books and finally pursued this as, from a young age, Natalie treasured books and remembers selecting her favourite bedtime stories to share with her mother.  These were magical moments and the power of stories and storytelling can be often overlooked today. 

Stories should be enticing and empower children to explore “big” feelings and issues that affect them or the world around them.  There is no topic too tricky that cannot be explored through a meaningful and well-written children’s book.  Natalie aims to explore some of daily challenges children experience in her books (and the big feelings that come along with those) whilst ensuring that her stories are enjoyable and engage the imagination to adventure with. 

Her debut story, The Wintertide Bear, is an endearing story that explores the power of determination and perseverance, even when we are faced with big choices to make.

Salma Zaman is a dance, drama and SEN teacher and the founder and creative director of Salma’s Bollywood Academy in Yorkshire. She is also a freelance lecturer and an ambassador for several charities. As if that wasn’t enough, she has written two children’s books and is about to publish her third with us at Blue Falcon. Quite an impressive CV!

Salma’s books are aimed at children from all cultural backgrounds and encourage community cohesion and integration of all faiths. She is hugely passionate about encouraging understanding of culture, equality, diversity, inclusivity and disability awareness. Her next publication will be Greedy Gertie, an uplifting tale about a cow in a wheelchair who doesn’t feel that she can join in with a group of dancing animals. Salma invests a lot of time working with children in schools, libraries and museums, using books and story-telling narratives to bring story writing and dance alive.

In 2018, Salma won the ‘Yorkshire Women of Achievement’ award for her contribution to the arts.

Publications
Greedy Gertie, an inspirational children’s picture book, was published on 9th March 2019.

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