Honoured to receive an MBE from King Charles on Wednesday- and dedicating it to 2 amazing people. To my dad, who raised me and gave me his strength and belief. And to my better half Gwen, whose love, patience and encouragement keep me grounded and striving. Grateful beyond words

Today, I'll be performing #WeAreFamily at St. Chrysostum's Primary School and Manchester Central Library, promoting the #Take10ToRead campaign with @manclibraries, #ReadMCR and National Literacy Trust.

I'll also be trying to squeeze in my own 10 minutes to read! I hope you'll be doing the same! 📚

Wow! TWO of my books have been voted for by kids to be shortlisted for the 2025 Children's Literature Festivals Book Awards! 🤩 Thnx to Ian Morris who illustrated both, to publishers @otterbarrybooks.bsky.social and Man Met Uni & Your Story, and all the children who voted! 🥳🎊✨

Lovely pic from the #CLiPPA book ceremony with primary school legends Jack and Caddus from Summercroft Primary 😊

They did an exceptional job performing 'Saving Face' from #WeAreFamily in front of 1000 people!

Good job, lads! 🫡

Today, I receive an MBE for Services to Access to the Arts for Underprivileged Young People.

I'd like to dedicate it to my dad, who raised me and my five siblings, who taught me the importance of education and who encouraged me to chase my dreams.

Nais tuke, Dad! 🙏

✨️ Super-excited to share that We Are Family has been shortlisted for The 2025 Week Junior Book Awards! ✨

Huge thanks to my publisher, Otter-Barry Books, for taking a chance on this proud working class writer! 🫶

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📣BOOK NEWS📣

My next book ‘Saving Anwen’ publishes in just two weeks as part of #BigCatReadOn! Set children up for a lifelong love of reading with new chapter books from Collins Big Cat, perfect for use in the classroom and at home 📚 Find out more here: collins.co.uk/collections/...

Had a lovely time in Trafford recently, performing #WeAreFamily! Big thanks to Trafford Libraries for making it happen 😊

Had an amazing time this afternoon! Huge thanks to everyone who came to watch #wearefamily, and a huge thanks to the theatre staff (Gaynor, Gwyneth and Barry) at Theatr Twm O'r Nant in Denbigh! ☺️👏

Had a wonderful time today performing my stage adaptation of #WeAreFamily at Old Trafford Library and Sale Library! 🥳

Huge thank you to Trafford Libraries for all their support and to everyone who came down 👏

Next stop... Theatr Twm O'r Nant, Denbigh! 🤩

My debut poetry collection, We Are Family: Six Kids and Super-Dad, has just been shortlisted for the 2025 Stockport Children's Book Awards! 🤩🥳👌

Honoured to have TWO titles on the longlist for the '25 #clfbookawards! #AlfieandtheThief and #WeAreFamily! 🤯 Congrats to the other titles and huge shout out to
@ChristiGabbitas
and all the work she and the fab people at
@ChildrensLFests
do to champion children from disadvantaged backgrounds ❤️

Our 2-year-old German Shepherd, Luna, has really got the whole 'cushion-bed' thing confused! Lol 🤣🤣

Yeah, he even committed the Welsh accent to these bad-boys... Like you, I was confused (and to be honest, pretty shocked too) to find out it was all an act. Seems disingenuous, especially as its stand-up, but there you go! 🤷‍♂️

TEACHERS! #edusky This one's called 'The Haircut' 🤦‍♂️

Using the prompt: 'Things that can go wrong at home', I've found it to be a really fun way to get kids to use their own lives as inspiration for writing and sharing their own stories and poems - enjoy 😊

Illustration: Ian Morris

#edusky Hello, teachers! Bit late to the party - I'm newly arrived from Twitter. I'm a children's author and poet, and will be posting lots of #poetry and #kidlit things. My writing is mostly inspired (in some way or other) by my rough, tough but happy childhood! 😊

Illustration: Ian Morris