Dino toy inspires heart-warming new children’s book by North Devon authors

A dinosaur-loving Swimbridge girl and her cuddly dino toy Alan were the inspiration for a new children’s book on sale today (Wednesday, November 12) written by her dad and illustrated by her mum.

When Poppy Palmer came home from nursery clutching a shoebox for a charity appeal (and Alan, of course) dad Nathan was struck by the notion of doing something nice but having to give something away too – and the idea for My Friend Alan was born.

Since Poppy’s mum and his partner Annie is an illustrator, it seemed the perfect opportunity to combine the two and their new children’s book is now available to buy via Amazon and most main bookshops.

Above: My Friend Alan, by Nathan and Annie. 

It's the story of Poppy, a young girl, who, inspired by her school’s Give a Gift to Malawi campaign, decides to buy and donate a cuddly blue stegosaurus called Alan. But as Poppy soon discovers, giving away a toy is one thing, giving away a friend is quite another…

Nathan explained further: “It's a tale of love and kindness and a celebration of just what it means to be a friend.

“If the book helps generate just one little spark of love and kindness somewhere, we'd consider the whole thing very worthwhile.”

Above: My Friend Alan is a heart-warming new children’s book written by Nathan Palmer from Swimbridge and illustrated by his partner Annie. Credit: Nathan Palmer

The story of My Friend Alan began in 2020 when Poppy was still at nursery. Nathan said: “She’s always been mad about dinosaurs. Dinosaur books, dinosaur toys, dinosaur bones, you name it - if it fits inside the house and went extinct 65 million years ago, we’ve probably got it around here somewhere. 

“She has one particular cuddly dinosaur, one of those big fellas with the long necks and little heads. His name is Alan and Poppy never went anywhere without him.

“Poppy would always come home from nursery with her arms full of stuff, usually including Alan. One day she came home clutching something out of the ordinary, an empty shoebox.

“It was accompanied by a letter asking us nicely if we could fill it with anything we could spare – old toys, toiletries, games and so on, so that it could be passed on to someone who’d really benefit from it. 

“It was then the little acorn that grew into My Friend Alan was planted. I’d thought about writing children’s picture books for a while, reading them nightly to Poppy as I was. All I was lacking was the right story.”

The couple wanted the story to be about something nice and the difference an individual can make, but also the emotional impact that involved an element of letting go.

Above: Alan goes on his adventures...

Nathan added: “It was great fun imagining Alan’s journey to Malawi and the sort of things he might get up to there. It was also actually pretty affecting, charting my own daughter’s maturing emotions as she comes to terms with saying a tough goodbye.

“Happily, the real Alan is still part of the family to this day, there was no way we were giving him away!”

Nathan will also be giving a talk and discussing his thoughts on the creative process at St James Church in Swimbridge on Thursday, November 20 at 7.30pm as part of the Swimbridge Q&As Autumn 2025 series on creativity (tickets are £5 each or free to Friends of St James Church).

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