In 2013, British novelist Geoff Nicholson turns sixty, and since he’s one of my favourite British authors (and a fellow ex-pat), I’m beginning the celebration early with a pledge to spend a year reading his books. Nicholson is a criminally unappreciated author; I’ve read almost all of his books–parceling them out whenever I needed a Nicholson boost, so for this read-a-thon, most of the books will be a re-read.
Geoff Nicholson maintains an active blog: www.hollywoodwalker.blogspot.com, so when I’m not reading his books, he’s entertaining me with his marvellous blog posts.
Like me, Nicholson doesn’t seem too interested in ‘normal’ people. He appears to find obsessives far more interesting, so it’s no surprise that obsessive behaviour often finds its way into his humourous books. And for those interested, here’s a list of this author’s novels:
Street Sleeper (1987)
The Knot Garden (1989)
What We Did on Our Holidays (1990) made into a film
Hunters and Gatherers (1991)
The Food Chain (1992)
The Errol Flynn Novel (1993)
Still Life with Volkswagens (1994)
Everything and More (1994)
Footsucker (1995)
Bleeding London (1997)
Flesh Guitar (1998)
Female Ruins (1999)
Bedlam Burning (2000)
The Hollywood Dodo (2004)
Gravity’s Volkswagen (2009)
Non-Fiction
Big Noises (1991)
Day Trips to the Desert (1993)
Sex Collectors (2006)
The Lost Art of Walking (2008)
That’s 15 novels and 4 non-fiction books. Now you see why I can’t have a Geoff Nicholson week or month. He deserves a whole year!!! Stay tuned to discover how many Nicholson novels I’ll read over the course of a year as I share my enthusiastic obsession for one of my favourite writers….
His Futile Preoccupations ..... 
I read Bedlam Burning when my then agent suggested it – I’d just written a book with a similar theme and I think he wanted to show me how difficult it would be to find a publisher for it when the idea had already been used. What struck me though was the sheer quality of Nicholson’s writing, the fact that two of us – in fact, there were more; Alan Warner, for one – who saw intellectual theft as worth writing about, and the even more interesting, and shocking fact that Nicholson wasn’t better known. He deserves to be widely read, and praised. So I’m looking forward to seeing your take on n his work, and to reading more of it myself (And no, I still haven’t published my book about the stolen ms. Anyone interested?)
How about putting it on the kindle? Of course, I have no idea how to go about that but more and more writers seem to be taking the plunge.
I’ve been thinking about that. I’ll keep you informed!
I found a couple of interesting internet articles on the subject recently–many authors are choosing to take that direction. I’ll buy it if you do.
That’s good to know!
Lee Goldberg recently had some very interesting observations about e-publishing on his blog if you are interested.
I am interested. Can you give me a link?
Charles, I made an earlier post, e-publishing, that includes the link to Goldberg’s blog post. He has a lot on the subject and I’m just a reader. I think Goldberg is a very savvy fellow when it comes to many issues, so he’s worth paying attention to.
http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2012/04/for-me-left-coast-crime-in-sacramento-was-more-of-a-craft-and-business-conference-i-only-attended-one-panel-besides-the-thr.html
Shame. I’ve never heard of him before. When is your reading year starting, in 2013 or from now on?
It starts as soon as I finished the Maugham novel I’m reading. I rifled through the shelves until I got to the Nicholson novels and I have the first, Street Sleeper out ready. I don’t like to read too many books by the same author in a row so I’ll spread them out.
I wasn’t sure if you want this to be like a sort of event. It will not be easy though. Many of his books are not available.
No it’s more of a goal for me, and I hope that perhaps some readers will be interested enough to check out the books after the reviews are posted.
Like Caroline, a new name to me Guy. I’ll certainly read the posts and might be tempted to investigate further.
On an initial acquaintance it’s evident the chap likes VWs….
Yes, he wrote a VW trilogy and that’s another reason I like him. I own a diesel VW which gets about 55 MPG
I should add that many of his novels are about obsessions. I think you’d like him, but the reviews will begin soon.
I read Still Life with Volkswagens years ago (probably around when it came out), and remember liking it but not necessarily loving it. It certainly featured obsessives, and volkswagens.
Was that one you’ve previously read? How did you find it?
I’ve never heard of him, but I see I’m not the only one.
Work makes me a little obsessed with Volkswagen these days, so I’m tempted by the VW series. Does Gravity’s Volkswagen involve a VW minibus with a rainbow decor ?
Which one would you recommend ? (“Any of them” is not an acceptable answer, :-))
I’ll have to think about that. Footsucker is outrageous and I see it’s translated into French.
The French cover of Footsucker is fantastic, but it’s the naughty choice. I’d probably say Bedlam Burning.
Funnily enough I haven’t read any of the VW trilogy, but I’m close to correcting that.
“What we did on our holidays” is available in French and in paperback.
How is it?
I liked it, but it wasn’t my favourite. There again you know I have a weakness for books that show people behaving badly on holiday
I’ve never heard of him either. Are you sure you didn’t make him up? 🙂
That points, though, to a curious phenomenon I’ve recently noticed: contemporary British authors whose works don’t seem to make it to the U.S., or else get scant notice here when they do. I’ve run into so many of these in the last few months – names I’ve never heard, titles I’ve never seen. So the “Three Percent” problem might involve a significantly more broad notion of “translation” than one might imagine.
Yes, it’s a problem. Sometimes I wait (and wait, and wait) for a British novelist to be published here and then after a while it becomes obvious that it’s not going to happen. You wouldn’t think there would be such a divide…
Have you read Gravity’s Volkswagen? That sounds intriguing…
Strangely enough I haven’t read any of the VW trilogy and I just bought the title you mention.
Yay for another Nicholson fan, I loved Bleeding London and Female Ruins. Never realised he had so many titles to his name!