Geoff Nicholson

Geoffrey Joseph Nicholson was born in Hillsborough, Sheffield on 4 March 1953.The Lost Art of Walking, Riverhead Books (2008).{{cite news |last1=Lapper |first1=Richard |title=Geoff Nicholson obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/feb/17/geoff-nicholson-obituary |access-date=17 February 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=17 February 2025}} He studied English at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and Modern European Drama at the University of Essex.{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/books/geoff-nicholson-dead.html|title = Geoff Nicholson, Author of Darkly Comic Novels, Dies at 71|last = Gabriel|first = Trip|date = 9 March 2025|accessdate = 10 March 2025|work = The New York Times|url-access = limited}}

Nicholson was generally regarded as a satirist in the tradition of Evelyn Waugh,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AHdhBAAAQBAJ&q=%22geoff+nicholson%22+martin+amis&pg=PT1226|title=The Cambridge History of the English Novel|last1=Caserio|first1=Robert L.|last2=Hawes|first2=Clement|date=2012-01-12|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781316175101}} his writing also being compared favorably with that of Kinsgley and Martin Amis, Jonathan Coe,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AHdhBAAAQBAJ&q=%22geoff+nicholson%22+martin+amis&pg=PT1226|title=The Cambridge History of the English Novel|last1=Caserio|first1=Robert L.|last2=Hawes|first2=Clement|date=2012-01-12|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781316175101}} Will Self and Zadie Smith.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wf2HEo1RGFwC&q=%22geoff+nicholson%22+martin+amis&pg=PA145|title=In Darkest London: The Gothic Cityscape in Victorian Literature|last=Ridenhour|first=Jamieson|date=2013-01-01|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780810887770}} The main themes and features of his books included leading characters with major obsessions, sexual and otherwise (guitars, Volkswagens, women's feet and shoes), interweaving storylines and hidden subcultures and societies. His books usually contained a lot of black humour. He also wrote several works of non-fiction and many short stories. His novel Bleeding London was shortlisted for the 1997 Whitbread Prize.

His travelogue Day Trips to the Desert was read on Radio 4 by Bill Nighy.

His novel What We Did on Our Holidays was made into the 2007 film Permanent Vacation, featuring David Carradine, directed by W. Scott Peake.{{Cite web |title=Permanent Vacation {{!}} Film 2007 {{!}} TV-MEDIA |url=https://www.tv-media.at/filme/permanent-vacation-2007 |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=tv-media.at |language=de}}{{Cite web |last=Aden |first=Josh |date=2007-09-06 |title=Featured destination |url=https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-xpm-2007-09-06-hbi-happs06.1-story.html |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=Daily Pilot}}{{Cite web |title=Permanent Vacation |url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/permanent-vacation/review/2000009147/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=TV Guide}}{{Cite web |title=Blasts from the Past – SoCal Film Awards |url=https://socalfilmawards.com/blasts-from-the-past/ |access-date=2024-01-21}}

He was a member of the delegation of Los Angeles writers and filmmakers invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to participate in the Guadalajara International Book Festival in 2009.

Nicholson's marriages to Tessa Robinson and Dian Hanson ended in divorce. At the time of his death, he was in a relationship with Caroline Gannon.

Nicholson died from chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia at a Colchester hospital on 18 January 2025, at the age of 71.

• Street Sleeper (1987)
• The Knot Garden (1989)
• What We Did on Our Holidays (1990)
• 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)
• The City Under the Skin (2014); Turkish translation: Haritali Adam (2015)
• The Miranda (2017)

• Big Noises (1991)
• Day Trips to the Desert (1993)
• Andy Warhol: A Beginner's Guide (2002)
• Frank Lloyd Wright: A Beginner's Guide (2002)
• Sex Collectors (2006)
• The Lost Art of Walking (2008)
• Walking in Ruins (2013)
• The London Complaint (2016)
• The Suburbanist (2021)
• Walking on Thin Air (2023)

{{Reflist}}

• [https://geoffnicholsonwriter.com/ GeoffNicholsonWriter.com]
• [http://geoff-nicholson.tripod.com/ Geoff Nicholson] at Tripod.com (personal site)
• [http://www.complete-review.com/authors/nicholsong.htm Geoff Nicholson] at Complete Review
• [http://blog.colinmarshall.org/?p=2324 An interview with Geoff Nicholson] on Notebook on Cities and Culture

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Category:1953 births

Category:2025 deaths

Category:20th-century English male writers

Category:20th-century English novelists

Category:21st-century English male writers

Category:21st-century English novelists

Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Category:Alumni of the University of Essex

Category:Deaths from chronic myeloid leukemia

Category:Deaths from leukemia in England

Category:English male non-fiction writers

Category:English male novelists

Category:English travel writers

Category:People from Hillsborough, Sheffield

Category:Writers from Sheffield

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