Blog tour: A Parcel For Anna Browne – When Amanda Met Miranda!
22 Sep
I’m declaring today Anna Browne Day here on One More Page in celebration of Miranda Dickinson’s wonderful new book A Parcel for Anna Browne which is released on Thursday (24th September). Later today I’ll be giving you the chance to win an exclusive signed first edition of the book and I’ll be posting my review but first I wanted to share with you a very special day that took place last month when I won a competition to meet Miranda and see this gorgeous new book be printed!
At the beginning of August I received an email almost as exciting as one of Anna’s parcels challenging me and fellow book bloggers to show our wrapping skills by creating A Parcel for Anna Browne and posting the results on Twitter! The prize – a chance to meet Miranda and see the book printed. Of course I couldn’t resist so I put my thinking cap on and raided my children’s craft cupboard to conjure up something suitably magical for Anna. To be honest, my craft skills are a bit hit and miss and there was a very dodgy moment when my attempt to tear a heart shape in the wrapping almost ended in tears but I stuck with it (!) and was pretty chuffed with the final result!
It’s safe to say there was a lot of happy dancing when I found out I’d won and then the nerves set in! I was going to meet one of my favourite authors. I’ve read every one of Miranda’s books and we’ve chatted on Twitter for years so it was very strange to actually meet face-to-face finally. I needn’t have worried – Miranda is as chatty and friendly in person as she is online and instantly put me at ease.
Seeing A Parcel for Anna Browne being printed was a brilliant experience and I can’t thank publisher Pan Macmillan enough for arranging the day. As a librarian and avid reader I’ve always been fascinated by books but I’d never actually seen one printed and it was amazing to see hundreds of copies of the book whizzing round the printers – I couldn’t believe how quickly the whole process moved! Hopefully you can get an idea from the pictures here.
My special day ended with lunch with Miranda and her editor where we chatted about reading, writing and some of the very exciting things planned for the launch of A Parcel for Anna Browne this week. I was delighted to take home a hot off the press copy of the book and Miranda kindly signed two more first edition copies for me to offer as competition prizes to lucky readers here on One More Page. I’ll be launching the competition and publishing my review of the book later today so please do watch this space!
Keep an eye on Miranda’s Twitter and Facebook page: for more exciting Anna Browne related news and events this week!