When an awkward, heavily bullied schoolboy from a dysfunctional home discovers a beautiful water nymph hiding in an abandoned Edwardian bathhouse, he must confront his own personal demons in order to save them both from the depraved custodian who keeps the enchanted waters alive with the ritual sacrifice of children. Review: Where do you go when home and school are equally hellish? This is the problem facing young Arthur Braxton. In his house is a depressed, dependent dad who requires th...

Arthur and Delphina Laurel Arthur Braxton Senior Arthur, Tommy and Cliff Arthur Braxton Arthur and Delphina

Best UK Film Feature Still to be released and already ‘The Drowning of Arthur Braxton’ has been nominated for Best UK Feature at Raindance. There are only 3 nominations in the category.   Raindance Film Festival is the largest independent film festival in the UK, holding its 29th festival this year. It is officially recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences USA, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and the British Independent Film Awards, ...

Based on a novel by Caroline Smailes

Blog Tour ‘Not only is it a beautiful read in itself, the issues contained within resonated in many ways & possibly helped me better approach an inevitably tough Christmas ahead. Thank you for sharing. Its depth, heart & humour make it a must read novel, a festive message worth sharing’  Johnny Vegas  ‘I’m just so in love with Caroline Smailes’ writing. I laughed, I cried, I’m in the festive spirit and I definitely believe in St Nick’ Carrie Hope Fletcher‘From s...

Christmas Dinner Most people roll their eyes when I say that I have a 5ft Christmas tree in my office all year around and many are vocal against my Christmas countdown that starts on September 1. The thing that they don’t realise is that my early excitement is never about receiving presents, striving for festive perfection or battling crowds of list-ticking shoppers. It’s actually a nod to a time when I dreaded Christmas. There was a time when I believed I’d never feel ...

The Unwrapping of Theodora Quirke Blog Tour Dates

For every copy of ‘The Unwrapping of Theodora Quirke’ purchased from the RedDoor Bookshop,  £1 will be donated to  Radio City Cash for Kids' ‘Mission Christmas’.You can buy a signed/dedicated copy with an exclusive badge for £9.99.Or, Blackwells Manchester have signed copies that you can order by phone on 0161 274 3331 or via email Manchester@Blackwells.co.uk Or, from Waterstones.Or, from WHSmiths.Or, there's the Kindle edition, which is available from Amazon.

Zoom Launch of 'the Unwrapping of Theodora Quirke' I'm thrilled that I'll be in conversation with YouTube sensation, the director of  'The Drowning of Arthur Braxton' film and one of my favourite people, Luke Cutforth. It'll be a Zoom launch with a limited number of tickets available. What I'd quite like is for people to pour themselves a drink, put on a Christmas jumper and to settle down for an evening of festive chat. We'll be talking about Theo, St Nick and, without...

£1 from every order from the RedDoor Bookshop will go to the appeal A couple of weeks ago, my publisher told me that for every copy of ‘The Unwrapping of Theodora Quirke’ purchased from the RedDoor Bookshop, they would donate £1 to my chosen charity.Given the novel’s subject matter and given its focus on St Nick and the true meaning of Christmas, my decision was easy. I had to support ‘Mission Christmas’.For many families Christmas is simply a luxury they can’t afford. ...

Turkey, 28th September 1995 I’d spent that summer in Berlin, living rent-free in a flat that was soon to be demolished. By September I was hitchhiking around Turkey, keen to squeeze every second out of the summer. The day before I was travelling back to Liverpool, I (unexpectedly) found myself at The Church of Saint Nicholas in Myra (became the small Turkish town of Kale/Demre).  The church was said to be built on the foundations of the older Christian church where Sain...

  Out 15 October, 2020.  A CHRISTMAS CAROL  MEETS STRANGER THINGS  IN THIS FUNNY, SWEARY AND MOVING FESTIVE STORY.  Transworld author Caroline Smailes will publish her long-awaited Christmas novel with RedDoor Press in October 2020. The move reunites Smailes with RedDoor publisher Clare Christian who published Smailes’ critically-acclaimed debut In Search of Adam in 2007.  Already described as ‘funny and touching and utterly brilliant’ by Rachael Lucas and ‘a remarkable...

Smurf (number 1) and Smurf (number 25) Twitter was alive with the sound of northern authors yesterday. A day for us. Voices heard and permission given for a bit of self-promotion and - this feels odd when written down - to be northern. An agent once told me that The Drowning Arthur Braxton was too northern. She said that if I wanted it to be a 'success', then I needed to make it more ‘neutral’. And by that, she outlined:  Remove all accent.  Reconsider working class as...

Caroline Smailes (18) in France You’re living in France. In Canet. Have been for three months already. Arrived with a year’s supply of pasta, just in case the village shop didn’t sell it. You bought those wooden dinosaur earrings from a Moroccan man on the beach and they say more about your personality than you realise. Some days you think you might study French at university, might even move to Liverpool, but there’s an equal chance that you’ll stay in France forever....

Caroline Smailes (3) in Malta 'But why do you write?' she asked.‘To be heard,’ I said. 'September 2016. That was the first time I ever felt heard.' What I didn’t add was that my desire to be heard isn’t some egotistical need for attention. The opposite really, since when I'm ‘heard’ I’m shining a spotlight on the voices that are overlooked or ignored. And it's entirely relevant that most of my protagonists are teenagers. Because the experience of being ‘young’ varies so...