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Beautiful Trees
Combining brevity with an overarching narrative, Nik Perring’s unusual storytelling is touching and captivating. His Beautiful series follow the lives of Lucy, Lily, and Alexander through words, trees and shapes.
In the second edition of the series, Beautiful Trees, the narrative continues to unravel amidst the branches of some of our greatest trees, brought to life by the rich and playful illustrations of Miranda Sofroniou.
In the second edition of the series, Beautiful Trees, the narrative continues to unravel amidst the branches of some of our greatest trees, brought to life by the rich and playful illustrations of Miranda Sofroniou.
Paperback
Published November 5, 2015
About the author
Nik Perring
13 books36 followersNik Perring is a short story writer from the UK. He's the author of the collection NOT SO PERFECT (Roast Books, 2010) and the co-author of the super hero inspired collection, FREAKS (TFP/HarperCollins 2012). He also wrote A Book of Beautiful Words, Some Meanings, and Some Fictions too (RoastBooks, 2014) and Beautiful Trees is out now.
He lives in England and would like a cat one day.
He lives in England and would like a cat one day.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 22, 2019
A stunningly beautiful book!
Having followed Alexander and Lucy's relationship in Beautiful Words, we now follow Alexander and Lily's.
Beautiful Trees is a deeply tender and touching account documenting marriage, parenthood and togetherness. For me, this book is an incredibly intimate insight into one couple's relationship and celebrates their happiness and compatibility.
Each page has a separate tree heading and offers a snippet into their relationship. In these scenes we come to learn how significant and symbolic trees are to them.
There are soooooo many scenes in this little book I love. For example the Cherry tree excerpts depict their meeting, their marriage and their suggested breakdown while Holly, Ash and Beech highlights the inextricable bond between them. Others focus on how there might be 3 of them in the relationship (Maidenhair and Poplar) while the final scene presents Lucy turning up on Lily's doorstep.
Perring's prose is beautiful (as always), poetic and resonant - he truly has a magical way with words! A must for literature lovers everywhere!
Having followed Alexander and Lucy's relationship in Beautiful Words, we now follow Alexander and Lily's.
Beautiful Trees is a deeply tender and touching account documenting marriage, parenthood and togetherness. For me, this book is an incredibly intimate insight into one couple's relationship and celebrates their happiness and compatibility.
Each page has a separate tree heading and offers a snippet into their relationship. In these scenes we come to learn how significant and symbolic trees are to them.
There are soooooo many scenes in this little book I love. For example the Cherry tree excerpts depict their meeting, their marriage and their suggested breakdown while Holly, Ash and Beech highlights the inextricable bond between them. Others focus on how there might be 3 of them in the relationship (Maidenhair and Poplar) while the final scene presents Lucy turning up on Lily's doorstep.
Perring's prose is beautiful (as always), poetic and resonant - he truly has a magical way with words! A must for literature lovers everywhere!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 30, 2015
Beautiful Trees is the second book in Nik Perring's Beautiful trilogy, the first being Beautiful Words. Reading Beautiful Words is not completely necessary to your enjoyment of Beautiful Trees, but I would keenly suggest getting it too, as it’s a truly stunning piece of writing and does also help to explain some additional aspects of this story.
Beautiful Trees follows the story of Alexandra and Lily’s relationship, but what is SO fantastically clever about the book, is the way in which their story parallels and intertwines with their love of a huge variety of different, and beautiful, trees.
Nik has managed to write a book worshipping these trees and love simultaneously, a mixture of truths and fictions. Each page focuses on a different tree, maybe a fact or a legend told about it, which is always so fascinating! This is then incredibly, and seamlessly merged with Alexander and Lily’s life and relationship together. Unbelievably clever, unexpected and quite inspired actually!
Nik’s writing style here is poetic, gentle and swaying like the multitude of trees in the book, making it very relaxing to read, and yet, the story will also clench your heart in a vice like grip and sprint away with it.
I also love that this book is about more than the writing. for once, we adults get the enjoyment of a picture book! Miranda Sofroniou brings Nik’s words to life with her stunningly beautiful artwork. Each page has a completely different atmosphere, and a beautiful tree of course. The playful simplistic style of Miranda’s expertly executed illustrations give the story even more weight, throwing colour (a soft natural palette) and emotion onto each page.
We really need more adult books like this, short fiction with illustrations to enhance the story visually and take it up onto another plane.
I’m reluctant to give away much about the development of this tale, as it is heart making and heart breaking all at the same time. You need to read this for yourself to experience the same ride of emotions that I went through, and I defy you not to shed maybe just a tear or two.
Beautiful Trees is a difficult book to sum up and do full justice to within a single written review. It's a little gem of a story that should be discussed and admired while supping a nice cuppa and chomping on cake. That is what this wonderfully creative and heartfelt book truly deserves.
Beautiful Trees follows the story of Alexandra and Lily’s relationship, but what is SO fantastically clever about the book, is the way in which their story parallels and intertwines with their love of a huge variety of different, and beautiful, trees.
Nik has managed to write a book worshipping these trees and love simultaneously, a mixture of truths and fictions. Each page focuses on a different tree, maybe a fact or a legend told about it, which is always so fascinating! This is then incredibly, and seamlessly merged with Alexander and Lily’s life and relationship together. Unbelievably clever, unexpected and quite inspired actually!
Nik’s writing style here is poetic, gentle and swaying like the multitude of trees in the book, making it very relaxing to read, and yet, the story will also clench your heart in a vice like grip and sprint away with it.
I also love that this book is about more than the writing. for once, we adults get the enjoyment of a picture book! Miranda Sofroniou brings Nik’s words to life with her stunningly beautiful artwork. Each page has a completely different atmosphere, and a beautiful tree of course. The playful simplistic style of Miranda’s expertly executed illustrations give the story even more weight, throwing colour (a soft natural palette) and emotion onto each page.
We really need more adult books like this, short fiction with illustrations to enhance the story visually and take it up onto another plane.
I’m reluctant to give away much about the development of this tale, as it is heart making and heart breaking all at the same time. You need to read this for yourself to experience the same ride of emotions that I went through, and I defy you not to shed maybe just a tear or two.
Beautiful Trees is a difficult book to sum up and do full justice to within a single written review. It's a little gem of a story that should be discussed and admired while supping a nice cuppa and chomping on cake. That is what this wonderfully creative and heartfelt book truly deserves.
Read
December 28, 2015There is something quite magical about this series of short illustrated books by Nik Perring. On the surface the storylines may appear quite simple but they're not, they resonate deep inside of the reader. These books work on so many levels - they're factually fascinating (I loved learning the meaning of some unusual words in book 1 and the history of various trees in this book) but Nik cleverly ties these facts to the story, and that's what creates the depth. My heart felt warmed when I reached the end of Beautiful Trees and I am desperate for book 3 to be published. This book would make a 'beautiful' gift. A very special series of books indeed.
December 6, 2015
This is like a picture book for adults, you get to learn all about the different trees which I found really interesting but you also get to meet Alexander and Lily and see their relationship and their love of trees. It is a very interesting mix and I absolutely loved it. It is a very relaxing read as Nik seems to bring a poetic side to the words. Such a clever way to bring a book to life.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews