Last Friday, BBC Radio Manchester paid host to author of the astonishing children's novel 'The Bee Hive'. Here is the link so you can listen to him being interviewed by Mike Sweeney where they talk all about the book, his work and his talented illustrator, his daughter Toni.

Make sure to listen now as this show will be removed from the BBC iPlayer in 25 days from this post. Simon's interview begins at 1:45

Eleven-year-old Daniel Jeremiah Chambers has parents Philip and Susan who love work and shopping and who just don't listen. Daniel is an only child ... no, he's lying ... he has a sister, Alice, who has a dolly fixation; Dan is sure she is an alien.
So, Dan has a few problems, none insurmountable, until his friend, Benji, introduces him to the find of the century - a derelict bee hive which could become a den. Of course, such a simple thing is never so simple and when Dan finds a map well, all kinds of things just go horribly wrong. For example - Alice noses her nosey way in and two strange men suddenly turn up wanting what's theirs - and then there's the bank, too.
The Beehive by Simon Adepetun is a tight little sharp-witted bumble through a short period in Dan's young life. ‘What's a bumble?' - ‘Shut up, Alice!'