jo ewan

Teacher, mum and history geek based in Somerset.

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

The doctor who delivered Dolly Parton in a one-room Tennessee cabin in 1946 was paid with a sack of cornmeal. Her father farmed other people's land and could not read or write. Eighty years later, the reading program she built in his name has mailed more than 300 million books.

She wrote "I Will Always Love You" on the same afternoon she wrote "Jolene," as a goodbye to Porter Wagoner, and released it in 1974. Elvis wanted it. The night before the session, Colonel Tom Parker called and said Presley would only record it if they got half the publishing, meaning half of everything the song ever earned. She had been in Nashville ten years by then. She said no, and cried all night. Whitney Houston cut her version in 1992, held number one for fourteen weeks, and Forbes later put Parton's royalties from it near $10 million. She put some of that money into an office complex in Nashville and called the place the house that Whitney built.

Dollywood opened in Pigeon Forge in 1986 because she wanted paychecks in the county she came from. Around 4,000 people work there now. Three million visitors come every year. The University of Tennessee put its economic impact at $1.8 billion, and it is the largest employer in Sevier County. Since 2022 the company has paid tuition, fees, and books in full for every worker from their first day, seasonal hires included.

Wildfires tore through those mountains in November 2016, killing fourteen people and destroying more than 2,400 buildings. Her foundation was handing out money within 48 hours. Every family that lost a home got $1,000 a month for six months, regardless of income. The final check was $5,000. Total delivered: $8.9 million.

In April 2020 she sent $1 million to Vanderbilt for coronavirus research. When Moderna's vaccine results ran in the New England Journal of Medicine that November, her fund appeared in the footnotes.

Carl Dean, her husband of nearly sixty years, died in March 2025. The note she wrote to fans afterward ended with the same five words she wrote for Porter Wagoner back in 1974. She died in Nashville today. Her family asked that instead of flowers, people give to the Imagination Library, which still mails 3.4 million books a month to children who will never get to meet her.

[Emma Welton | 𝚍𝚊𝚖𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚋𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚜.𝚌𝚘𝚖 @damppebbles]

*NEW BLOG POST*

My review of #EyeSpy by C.M. Ewan is live on #damppebbles!

I could not put this book down! Tense, utterly gripping and with a delicious sense of building dread. A captivating, high-octane thriller.

My review➡️ https://t.co/Y7LwFnEP7V
@panmacmillan
#BookTwitter

[Lynda’s Book Reviews and News @LyndaCheckley]

📙📙BOOK REVIEW 📙📙
📚📚Random Things Tours AD/PR 📚📚
Eye Spy by C M Ewan

Full review ➡️ https://t.co/QtWcHVzKR3

“This is a taut, fast paced thriller and is probably not best read whilst travelling on Eurostar!”

@chrisewan @RandomTTours @panmacmillan

[Liz Barnsley @Lizzy11268]

This really is an EXCELLENT book don't start it till you don't have to stop though 😂🧡📚

[Andrew Taylor @AndrewJRTaylor]

I'm thrilled to say that my latest novel, now in paperback, is ⁦@Waterstones⁩ Thriller of the Month. AND at a reduced price. https://t.co/cyZUvJcDu0

[Chris Ewan @chrisewan]

Very excited about this!

[Waterstones Taunton @waterstonestaun]

Next month on Friday 27th March we are hosting the launch of Eye Spy by @chrisewan!

Check out the link for more information and tickets:
https://t.co/wMFnNMga04

[Clare Donoghue @claredonoghue]

Do you need an editor or a proofreader?

My goal is to get your book as good as it can be!

I have diary space in March, with a quick turnaround, so check out my website and get in touch 👍

https://t.co/Cjlqrjw5M7

[📚 Locky Loves Books 📚 @Locky_football]

📖#Giveaway📖

#EyeSpy by @chrisewan is published on Thursday 26 March and you can win one of five proof copies in #TheBookload on Facebook!

Closes tonight (Thursday 12 February) at 11pm. UK addresses only.

Enter here: https://t.co/GY8kkx1OAn

[Liz Barnsley @Lizzy11268]

Finished reading
Eye Spy @chrisewan
One sitting read today. Says it all 😂❤️📚
Gripping, wildly entertaining, edgy, relatable protagonist in a situation spiralling ever more out of control, lands the ending with a quietly satisfying flourish 👌👏👏 26/3/26.

[Bobbie @bo66ie29]

Beautiful 1940s colour footage of the Cenotaph in London. Built just 20 years earlier replacing a temporary memorial created at the end of the Great War. Sir Edwin Lutyens waived his fee for its design.

[Lord Ashcroft @LordAshcroft]

For every retweet of this post, I will donate £1 to the @VC_and_GC_Assoc up to £50,000.
Time is running out following @I_W_M’s decision to close the Lord Ashcroft Gallery.
Visit while you still can, to honour the bravery of those who risked so much to protect our great nation.

[Sayeeda Warsi @SayeedaWarsi]

Born in Turkey, raised in Palestine, a “foreigner” who never visited our shores and who died for his belief in the one God- a basic tenant of Islam and a fundamental belief of all the Abrahamic faiths.
St George was canonised by a Catholic born in Tunisia and is the patron saint of amongst others Ethiopia and Catalonia.
St George was a symbol of internationalism and multiculturalism ❤️
#raisethecolours good folk of my country and celebrate our nation for the amazing diverse melting pot it is - in line with the great tradition of our patron St George

[jo ewan @jo_ewan]

@ellespeller Good luck Edward!

[Vic Watson-Logan #baytales27 @vpeanuts]

This fab free event comes the night before The Word is Murder - S Tyneside’s Crime Fic festival. £15 for the full day feat. @StephLunch @policecommander @VaseemKhanUK @flint_writes @FionaAnnCummins @mjarlidge @chrisewan 🤩🤩🤩🤩
#southshields #amreading @TheWord_UK #crimefic

[📚The Writing Community Chat Show / The WCCS 📚 @writing_show]

Wonderful @panmacmillan interview. Mark Billingham interviewing C.M Ewan.

#TheakstonCrime #Harrogate #Crimefiction

[The Purple Pimpernel @Eyeswideopen69]

You were the minister for Women and Equalities from 26 October 2022, until 5 July 2024 Kemi.

Why didn’t you defend the victims then?

[Goodable @Goodable]

Every year on the anniversary of #DDay, French citizens take sand from Omaha Beach and rub it onto the gravestones of fallen soldiers who gave their lives to liberate Europe.

It gives the letters a golden shine.

They do this for all 9,386 American soldiers buried there.

#MemorialDay2025

[Chris Ewan @chrisewan]

This was such a fun event! Huge thanks to @mjarlidge Crawley Library @JohnPye7 and all the readers who came along.

[jo ewan @jo_ewan]

@ellespeller Happy anniversary Spellers! 🥂Xx