Publishing deal for Wigan author whose books help families deal with health conditions

Tiny Tree Children’s Books has announced that all five titles in Alex Winstanley’s award-winning My Has picture book series, illustrated by Adam Walker-Parker, will be available on January 19.

Alex, a children’s author and social entrepreneur from Standish, writes books to help people deal with difficult situations.

His first book, entitled My Grandma Has Dementia, was inspired by his own grandmother’s experience with the illness and won an Alzheimer's Society Dementia Hero award.

Alex was inspired to write more books to raise awareness of long-term health conditions and give a voice to people with real-life experience.

Alex, 30, said: "I am over the moon that an organisation with values and passions close to mine have shown their support for my books.

"Tiny Tree will support the growth of the series, to make sure that we can help as many children and families as possible.”

Publisher James Shaw said: “Alex has written some really powerful and insightful books and we’re excited to be working with him to help his work reach even more people.

“Helping children to better understand long-term conditions in this way is so important and we’re proud to be publishing a series like this”.

Profits from the sales of Alex's books partly support his Wigan-based social enterprise Happy Smiles Training CIC, which empowers disabled young adults to create positive social change.

The organisation was inspired by Alex’s experiences as a teacher and carer, as he grew tired of seeing disabled people being undervalued and stigmatised.

Alongside one of the men he supported, Alex left his teaching job in 2019 to develop a team of inclusion champions – all disabled young adults – and deliver diversity and inclusion training to schools, community groups, businesses and more.

There are currently five books in the My Has series – My Grandma Has Dementia, My Uncle Has Depression, My Brother Has Cancer, My Cousin Has Tourettes and My Child Has Cerebral Palsy.

Alex is hoping to expand the series with new books in the years to come.

Books are available to pre-order now from Amazon, Waterstones and book shops.