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Emma Swan

@emmaswanauthor

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📚 Award-winning Children's Author and West End Actor
🚢 Order 'Cruise Ship Kid' below!!
✨ Follow my life as a children's author! @usborne_books

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What an amazing few days last week at #cheltlitfest with @mariaisabelsanchezvegara celebrating 10 years of the Little People BIG DREAMS series with fun game shows that had singalongs with the talented @tommyantonio (the theme song is still stuck in my head!), a puzzle round, Isa reading our Julia Donaldson book to the audience, me doing a draw-along (the kids were so good at following along and it was wonderful seeing their drawings afterwards!!) then an inspiring Q&A with Isa, and high fives and book signings in the Waterstones kids tent afterwards!! It was so sweet to meet kids and teachers, parents, afterwards, and having a chat and drawing many cats! Thank you to everyone who came along, and for the wonderfully enthusiastic host @emmaswanauthor - you were amazing, making 500 kids go wild!

I was nervous before doing this as it was my first time but everyone was so lovely and supportive, including the folks behind the scenes, it was a real treat to take part!!! I’ll definitely be coming back to Cheltenham Literature festival again, and will share some of my draw-along in another post!

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@cheltfestivals @quartokids #littlepeoplebigdreams #drawalong #livedrawing #juliadonaldson

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Some more highlights from Cheltenham Literature Festival 📚🍁🧡

It’s always a highlight of the year for me and this year there was an amazing line up - it was so hard to choose which events to go to! Wish I lived closer and could go both weekends! The best way to celebrate reading and writing 📚✏️🧡

#cheltenhamliteraturefestival #litfest #newbooks #authorevent #primaryteacher

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📍Cheltenham Literature Festival 2026 📚🍁🧡 @cheltfestivals

Always one of my favourite times of the year and it did not disappoint! It’s been lovely spending it with @primaryteachew this year too 🍁🧡

Here’s what we got up to!

📚 @mrmcgrammar & @iammichaelrosen were amazing - so much fun and really made us laugh!

📚 @greg_james & chrissmithbooks were brilliant - their Christmas story sounds great! Thank you for signing our books too ✏️

📚 Lovely seeing @mglnrd and meeting in real life! And I also bumped into @lucyfalkner - so nice to see you!

📚 @primaryteachew and I set ourselves ten minutes to find each other a new book that we recommend in the festival Waterstones - how do you think we did?

📚 We saw the wonderful @emmaswanauthor who was incredible and then we went for food together too! 🍔

📚 We also saw @reeceshearsmith_ who was so interesting and funny!

An amazing time was had 🥰🧡

#cheltenhamliteraturefestival #litfest #newbooks #authorevent #primaryteacher

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Happy Sunday!

I am asked many questions about my book stones, and thought I would do a quick post to answer them (and show off some fabulous books!)

1.      I make the book stones for free

2.      Authors/illustrators contact me to paint their book cover, but I will also reach out to peeps if a book cover catches my eye.

3.      Don’t be offended if I say no! Very rarely, a book cover pops up that is too intricate to paint onto a three-inch stone.

4.      The stones are given to bookshops to display until they are fed up with them! Most authors want to keep their stone, so I will organise to get them back.

5.      I sometimes reach out to shops local to authors so they can pop in and see their stone, but it won’t always be the case.

6.      I can’t guarantee when your stone will be painted. I have a HUGE list that I do prioritise when needed.

7.      I only paint books I have permission to paint.

8.      I always display the authors and illustrators names, and encourage people to follow them/buy their books!

9.      It’s all for fun! It brings the community together!

There are so many wonderful books out there, but I am not on here all the time, plus I work, write, and have a family!

To everyone who sees my posts - Feel free to tag the author/illustrator of a book you would like to see painted.

Authors/illustrators – Feel free to message me about your book (if you aren’t a follower, it will go to spam! It gets cleared once every few months).

Bookshops – if you want to be part of the fun...drop me a message (same applies as above for messages).

I am working on five Halloween book stones right now that I can’t wait to share with you!

Have I painted your book? Drop a 💙

Love and kindness,

J.M.

#pebbleart #Stoneart #rockpainting #rockart #stonepainting

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Little People BIG DREAMS brought the party to @cheltfestivals with a singalong of the anthem, an art round from @laurelpettitt_ showing her brilliant illustrations of the upcoming Julia Donaldson book by @mariaisabelsanchezvegara and @quartokids. All emcee’d by the beautifully brilliant energetic @emmaswanauthor

We had 500 kids singing the Anthem at 10am on the Friday, and another few hundred the next day. It’s the next step on the journey of Little People BIG DREAMS The Album written by @tommyantonio and @domjamesmusic

What a weekend!

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Huge thanks to @emmaswanauthor for hosting our conversation at @burylitfestival and to Kate Harris of @harrisharrisbooks for providing Emma’s and my books for our fabulous audience.

Luckily one gentleman actually read the @paulsmith cardy memo.

#hughbontour #RorySparkes #RorySparkesAndTheSpyWhoLovedTea

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N I N E
A very lucky birthday boy opening all his birthday presents ~ can’t believe my baby is 9! We also enjoyed a yummy birthday breakfast of pain au chocolate & juice!

#birthdayboy #9thbirthday #celebrations #happybirthday #birthdaypresents

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Super excited to have Emma Swan coming to the store... she will be reading from the latest Cruise Ship Kid book and signing as many books as you want.

#enfieldwaterstoneskidsevents
#cruiseshipkidkidnapatsea
#emmaswan

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If you like hearing other people's embarrassing stories as much as I do then check out Cringe Club: The Podcast.

I forced some authors and comedians to share their shame with me and here are just a few of my faves. We also helped (sort of!) some young listeners with their cringey dilemmas!

I loved making this podcast and hope to do another series one day but for now
the link is in my bio or listen wherever you get your podcasts!

Thanks for sharing your shame with me @juleshoward_zoology @tamsinwinterauthor @bendavisauthor @mattbrownauthor @alexmilway @big_bubble_theatre @louiestowell @athenakugblenu @sophiejowrites @emmaswanauthor @catiewilkins @manversusbaby @tiernandouieb @bethanywwriter @lucasjmaxwell and @foulkeswrites anyone else who joined me but I haven't got around to making a clip of yet!
@kateelizabethweston #comedypodcast #familypodcast #cringeclub #funnypodcast

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“Jekyll vs Hyde: The Potion of Doom” launch party - photo drop part 2! 🎉😱🍾🫣

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What a fun morning! 🎉 Brilliantly chaired by Emma Swan, we enjoyed stories about the character Rory Sparks and Hugh’s acting career, plus a lively quiz.

One question had us all debating: honey on spaghetti, or Parmesan on ice cream? 🍝🍦
We’d love to know what you’d choose. Let us know in the comments!

Thank you @bonhughbon and @emmaswanauthor for such a fun morning.

Thank you @hunterclubartscentre @alemacoffee and @cocosbakeshed @harrisharrisbooks

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We are delighted to have had the wonderful author of Cruise Ship Kid, @emmaswanauthor pop in and sign copies of her fantastic novels!
🛳️ 🛟 🌊

You can catch Emma at the Bury Literature Festival this Sunday (11th Oct) for a free fun interactive workshop!

For more details:
https://www.burylitfest.co.uk

#authorsigning #childrensauthor #cruiseshipkid #buryliteraturefestival #waterstones

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