Neil Nixon is an author, journalist and academic from

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town is at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast, south-west of Carlisle and north-east of Whitehaven. At the 2021 census the ...

, England. Nixon's published works include titles on the

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and two novels published under the name of Stanley Manly. In 1999, he founded the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

's first full-time higher education course in

Professional Writing Professional writing is writing for reward or as a profession; as a product or object, professional writing is any form of written communication produced in a workplace environment or context that enables employees to, for example, communicate effe ...

. Nixon's scripts include material for television and radio. His

radio play Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

''Mr. Lennon'' was nominated for a Sony Radio Academy Award for Best Single Drama.

Career

Nixon is a published journalist and was a regular contributor to the ''Fortean Studies'' series of books produced by ''

Fortean Times ''Fortean Times'' is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001), I Feel Good Publishing (from 2001 to 2005), Dennis Publishing (from ...

'' magazine. Nixon's work for the series included papers exploring UFOlogy from the perspective of social science. In his paper in ''Fortean Studies Volume 6'' called "They're Not all Lunatics on the Fringe", Nixon examined the meaning and fulfillment experienced by members of UFO cults. His book ''UFOs'' contained a chapter called "Astounding Tales" that cited four cases, including 1976 Tehran UFO incident, as a challenge to all UFO skepticism.

Stories

Nixon's comedy and fiction writing includes material for many of the UK's leading adult humour comics including '' Viz'', ''

Gas Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as ...

'', ''

Brain Damage Brain injury (BI) is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors. In general, brain damage refers to significant, undiscriminating trauma-induced damage. A common ...

'' and ''

Poot! ''Poot!'' was an adult British comics magazine which ran between 1985 and 1990. It had the tagline "silly cartoons and smart-arse satire for grown ups". The first edition was published in 1985 with a run of 500 copies. The comic grew to around 5 ...

''. He has also published two novels under the name of Stanley Manly. The first of these, ''Raiders of the Low Forehead'', was published in 1999 and was one of the first three offerings of Attack! Books. According to a review on ''Spank the Monkey'', the work was "less of a novel than a series of sketches with the slightest of narrative threads holding them together: all short punchy chapters, full of crap puns, relentless internal rhymes and blatantly obvious storytelling." Nixon's next novel, ''Workington Dynamo'', was published in 2008 and follows a more formal structure. The book was noted by ''3:AM Magazine'' to be "a hetero love story for a grrl as well as the soccer club, and his wimmin are a violent counter blast to the rich, thin tory-sucking anti-feminists that currently seem to think that fat poor people shouldn't be allowed to live. Young Dougie Grimton is after his cousin Kerry and the result is a sweet but tangy element amidst the picaresque madness."

Courses

In 1999, Nixon led the developments for the UK's first full-time higher education course in Professional Writing, a programme he continues to lead. A radio play Nixon wrote called ''Mr. Lennon'' was broadcast in 2001. The play imagines the life of

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

had failed to secure a record deal. ''Mr. Lennon'' was later nominated for a Sony Radio Academy Award for Best Single Drama.

References

Selected bibliography

Stanley Manly

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Neil Nixon

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nixon, Neil British male writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Workington British journalists