Why I Shouldn’t Put Things Off (Like Bees To Honey)

I don’t know why I do this. Well, I do, and I know I’m wrong, which makes things that little bit worse. (I don’t like being wrong.)

When I get a book I know I’ll like, I put off reading it. I tell myself: ‘Nik, you want to read this when you’ve chance to enjoy it. When there are no distractions.’

There are always distractions. And when I finally decide that enough’s enough, and that I should just get on with reading the book I always love it and wish I’d have just got on with it earlier.

I did it with Caroline Smailes’ ‘In Search of Adam(I talk about it here) and, more recently, her latest, the wonderful ‘Like Bees To Honey’.

So. ‘Like Bees To Honey’ is the story of Nina. A young woman ostracised from her family in Malta because she fell pregnant by a non-Maltese man. The story charts her return to her home island to see her parents again, one last time. But the Malta she finds is somewhat different to the place where she grew up.

Mainly because there are ghosts there.

And Jesus (who’s actually more like Johnny Depp than one might have imagined).

I can honestly say that this is one of the most affecting books I’ve read. It’s beautifully written, deeply moving and very funny in places. It’s the perfect story of understanding, of family, of home, of grief and of healing. And it will probably break your heart.

I’ve said many times on here that I’m rubbish at reviewing books so all I’ll say is that Like Bees To Honey is a wonderful, wonderful book which I wouldn’t hesitate to both recommend and give it a great big five star rating.

You know what to do. Just, you know, do it quicker than me.

Hive Time

It’s rather nice to be blogging about someone else’s cool stuff, instead of my own booky bits and bobs for a change (I like celebrating nice people who are brilliant and are doing brilliant things). So, if I may, can I point you in direction of the brilliant, and lovely, Caroline Smailes’ Hive page please? It’s been created to help promote her latest novel, Like Bees To Honey (which I’m reading and LOVING) but it goes beyond that because it’s both interactive and an awful lot of fun.

And if you look to the right you’ll see the Hive widget – if you’d like on your blog, here’s the code.

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Now, back to me. The fab Benjamin Judge (I still don’t know who the fudge he is) has been running his literary world cup, which has been all kinds of fun. I love it. Anyway, I (well, my book – which is back in stock, ahem) just knocked Toni Morrison out of it on penalties.
Benjamin says:
So this is it. The last battle before the draw for Round Three.
I don’t own Nik’s first book, nor Morrison’s second, so, as so often before, we are at one all after two rounds. Winning a Nobel Prize is a good indicator of a good writer. It is no surprise that Morrison picks up the first page honours. Then the underdog strikes back with “We were in the middle row on a plane on a flight back from Europe when my wife threw up a lemur.” Perring takes it to penalties!
First Penalty: Morrison = And. Perring = Her. 0 : 1
Second Penalty: Morrison = Heads. Perring = Colourful. 0 : 2
Third Penalty: Morrison = Bother. Perring = It. 1 : 2
Fourth Penalty: Morrison = Be. Perring = Duvet. 1 : 3
Nik Perring wins on penalties’

The Winner and More To Make Me Happy

Thanks to all who entered the draw for a free copy of Like Bees To Honey by Caroline Smailes. The names were put into the trusty Clipper tea tin, shaken a lot and then I picked one out. I did not peek.

And the lucky winner is: LovelyTreez

Could you let me have your address by clicking here please (or DMing it to me if you’re on Twitter)?

Congratulations. You will not be disappointed!

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And I’m really, really thrilled with the review of Not So Perfect on Book Chase.

Hearing that people who I don’t know have enjoyed it is a wonderful feeling.

Sam saying this made me particularly happy: “do not let their brevity fool you because each of the stories packs a little kick of its own. Perring has such an uncanny ability to create believable characters and unusual situations in very few words that I found myself always looking forward to the next story to see if he could pull it off again. He did.”

Thank you, Sam.

And you can pre-order Not So Perfect from all good book stores including amazon, The Book Depository (free international delivery) and The Big Green Book Shop.

A Special Day Giveaway!

I’m sending huge congratulations to Caroline Smailes because her third novel (which I’m loving!) ‘Like Bees To Honey’ is published today!


Hooray!

And to celebrate I’m giving a copy away (not mine, you understand!).

All you have to do is leave a comment saying ‘pick me’ or something similar. And while you’re at it, why don’t you pop over to Caroline’s blog and say hello…




I’ll pick the names out of a hat tomorrow afternoon/early evening.


ADDED: May 28th, 17:05: Competition Closed.

Liverpool 1 – 3 Caroline Smailes

I was lucky enough to have been invited to the launch of Caroline Smailes’ third novel, Like Bees to Honey, at the Liverpool 1 branch of Waterstone’s last Thursday.


And it was brilliant.

With roadworks and whatnot it took about two and a half hours to get there but it was well worth the trip. It was busy, I’m guessing there must have been 100 people in the audience. And that audience were well looked after, and I’m not just talking about the cake that was on offer.

First up was a reading. But not just any old reading. The excerpt from the book (from when Nina, the main character, was in her teens) was read by a college of a similar age – and she was brilliant.

We were then treated to a reading from Caroline herself (which, again, was brilliant) and then questions were asked and answered.

I also got to meet some top people I’d known for a while: Matthew Hill, Jon Mayhew, Kelly Railton, Keris Stainton, and Caroline’s husband (another top writer) Gary, which was lovely.

So yes. I had a brilliant time. And even came away with a pot of special honey.



Now my attention’s turning to my own book launch. It’s at the brilliant Simply Books in Bramhall on June 3rd (details here). If you’d like to come (and I would LOVE you to) could you drop me an email so I can pop you on the guest list please?

(And a reminder – there’s a London launch for Like Bees to Honey at the terrific Big Green Book Shop in Wood Green on Tuesday at 7pm. Just saying…)

Competition, Reviews and Interviews

I’m a little short of time at the moment so this’ll have to be a short post. I’ll definitely blog about yesterday’s Liverpool launch of Caroline Smailes’ Like Bees To Honey soon. It was brilliant.

But for now…

There’s the opportunity to win a copy of Not So Perfect here. There’s a review of it too, and an interview with me where I list some of my favourite short stories (I was reminded of the wonderful Babycakes by Neil Gaiman, amongst others). But I really love the competition. It’s all to do with smells… Big thanks to Bah! To Cancer for everything. I LOVE her review.

Not So Perfect also had a three star review at Reading Matters, where it’s classed as ‘a good read’, which is cool. Click here to read, though be warned it does contain mild spoilers.

Right. Back to being interviewed.

Like Bees To Honey, Chapter 10

UTTERLY THRILLED to be hosting chapter 10 of the Like Bees To Honey widget, by the lovely and stupidly talented Caroline Smailes.

Click here to see the first chapter, and where to begin (and when I say begin, I mean start to read the whole book for free – if you’re quick!).

And click here to read chapter 11.

I’ve read her previous books and utterly, utterly loved them.

There’s nothing else to say other than, enjoy!

A Fool To Myself

The competition where you’ve a chance to win a signed copy of Kate Long’s new novel is still running here, but in the meantime…

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I’m a fool to myself. I really am. I buy so many books or, if I’m lucky, get sent them and then take a bloody age to read them. So, firstly let me apologise to those author friends of mine whose books I’ve bought but not read. I will do. I promise.

So. I’ve had In Search of Adam, by the lovely and stupidly talented Caroline Smailes for, umm, just over a year. And I’ve only just read it.

My excuse, as is often the case, is when it’s something I’ve a fair idea I’ll love, I want to put it off until I find the time where I can enjoy it properly. And here’s the thing: when it’s a good book, when it IS something I love, I DO find the time.

And love In Search of Adam I did. So very much.

Jude’s only six years old when she finds her mother dead; she’s killed herself and the note she’s left reads: ‘Jude, I have gone in search of Adam.’

And so begins Jude’s journey. It’s a struggle against all the odds (including neglect and abuse) and what’s so wonderful about the story is that it’s never, ever sensationalised or sugar-coated. It is what it is: real, heart-breaking, brave, captivating and, as Dave Hill says on the back of the book, ‘handled with outstanding sensitivity’.

What I also loved was how brave and clever the formatting is – at times the words on the page represent perfectly the scattered, confused thoughts of a desperate young girl

This could be my book of the year. Caroline Smailes’ second novel, Black Boxes, almost claimed top spot last year and her third, Like Bees to Honey, is published in a couple of months; I am looking forward to it so, so much.

You can read me interviewing Caroline here.