Geoffrey Joseph Nicholson (4 March 1953 – 18 January 2025) was a British novelist and non-fiction writer.

Background

Geoffrey Joseph Nicholson was born in

Hillsborough, Sheffield Hillsborough () is a suburb in north-west Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The centre of the district is popularly thought to be 'Hillsborough Corner' where Langsett Road, Middlewood Road, Holme Lane and Bradfield Road all meet. The Hillsb ...

on 4 March 1953. He studied English at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

, and Modern European Drama at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. The university comprises three camp ...

Career

Nicholson was generally regarded as a

satirist This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires. Early satirical authors *Aes ...

in the tradition of

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

, his writing also being compared favorably with that of Kinsgley and

Martin Amis Sir Martin Louis Amis (25 August 1949 – 19 May 2023) was an English novelist, essayist, memoirist, screenwriter and critic. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and '' London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Mem ...

Jonathan Coe Jonathan Coe (; born 19 August 1961) is an English novelist and writer. His work has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire. For example, '' What a ...

Will Self William Woodard Self (born 26 September 1961) is an English writer, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster. He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Se ...

and

Zadie Smith Zadie Smith (born Sadie; 25 October 1975) is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She became a tenured professor in the ...

. 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 The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in United Kingdom, UK and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first ...

. 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. 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.

Personal life and death

Nicholson's marriages to Tessa Robinson and

Dian Hanson Dian Hanson (born November 2, 1951) is an American magazine and book editor. Career Hanson began her publishing career as an United States, American pornographic magazine editor, historian, and occasional model, helping found the 1970s hardcore jo ...

ended in divorce. At the time of his death, he was in a relationship with Caroline Gannon. Nicholson died from

chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is a type of leukemia, which are cancers of the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow. In adults, blood cells are formed in the bone marrow, by a process that is known as haematopoiesis. In CMML, there are in ...

at a

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

hospital on 18 January 2025, at the age of 71.

Bibliography

Novels

* ''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)

Non-fiction

* ''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)

References

External links

GeoffNicholsonWriter.com

Geoff Nicholson
at

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(personal site)
Geoff Nicholson
at ''

Complete Review ''Complete Review'' (stylized ''complete review'') is a literary website founded in March 1999. It is best known for reviews of novels in English translation, in particular drawing attention to otherwise neglected contemporary works from around th ...

''
An interview with Geoff Nicholson
on ''Notebook on Cities and Culture'' 1953 births 2025 deaths 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English male writers 21st-century English novelists Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Essex Deaths from chronic myeloid leukemia Deaths from leukemia in England English male non-fiction writers English male novelists English travel writers People from Hillsborough, Sheffield Writers from Sheffield {{UK-novelist-stub