As an oracy and identity-based, literacy inventor, author and self-publisher, I created Who Will We See? — an accessible, adaptable personalised storybook designed to support the earliest stages of talking and literacy.
In 2020, faced with the challenge of helping my two-year-old twins speak following early, rare illnesses, and seeking an effective strategy or resource in the isolation of the pandemic, I had an epiphany: why not create a lift-the-flap storybook featuring family photos as characters, where their names in the story serve as cues to prompt speech? When I read the storybook to my twins, they lit up with joy and, literally overnight, began saying their first words — their own names, as well as the names of all seven family members included in the storybook.
In 2021, inspired by the impressive results I followed my dream in the light of the Great Books tradition, and refined my work according to British Standards. Who Will We See? is state-of-the-art, evidence-informed, coherently sequenced, and builds on 50+ years of research. It supports speech and literacy through real names, real faces, real relationships, and playful, language-therapy-informed scaffolds.
In 2022, I submitted to various agents, including RCW Literary Agency, who guided me to my next step . . .
In 2023, I launched an independent online publishing house WHO WILL WE SEE? LTD and pioneered two new genres: accessible & personalised, identity-based storybooks, and oracy-first literacy. I donated a copy to the UCL Speech & Language Library. I also explored retail routes with Waterstones but was advised that in-store supply would require distribution through Gardners, whom I reached out to . . .
In 2024, I approached BookTrust, which confirmed that it does not review self-published books, and I also reached out to the National Literacy Trust . . .
In 2025, I submitted the programme to the Education Endowment Foundation, which described the design as “innovative” and recognised its aim of providing low-cost resources to educators, although formal evaluation of the matching SCAN P.D. was not taken forward. I also attended the 2025 LBF Writers’ Summit, where a key speaker noted that selection is shaped by many factors beyond quality alone, and another speaker advised me to show my work to CLPE, whom I reached out to . . .
In 2026, given it’s scalable design, aligned with national policy and curriculum, and built-in early oracy and reading-for-pleasure pedagogy I reached out to various government bodies . . .
The project has matured over 10,000 hours, £P.O.A. for W.W.R. Contact: info@whowillwesee.com
Who Will We See? ® 