Chris Nickson is the author of eleven Tom Harper mysteries, eight highly acclaimed novels in the Richard Nottingham series, and five Simon Westow mysteries. He is also a well-known music journalist. He lives in his beloved Leeds.
Nickson's newest book is Rusted Souls, the final book in the Tom Harper series.
Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Nickson's reply:
Although born and raised in Britain, and now back living there, I spent three decades in the US. As a music journalist I was very aware of Britpop in the 90s, and reviewed a fair bit of it. But I didn't have the story in a British context. Reading Daniel Rachel's Don't Look Back In Anger, which covers the entire Cool Britannia period of the 90s, along with Animal House by James Brown, the story of his magazine, Loaded, and Dylan Jones's Faster Than A Cannonball: 1995 And All ThatVisit Chris Nickson's website.(which covers more than just that year) gives me a full picture of a time I never experienced over here directly. Honestly, I'm not sure I missed much. Not research, just curiosity
There's also fiction. Patrick O'Brian's Blue At The Mizzen takes me back into the world of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, such perfectly drawn characters that it's always like a visit with old friends. In a Little Free Library yesterday I found Jay McInerney's debut Bright Lights, Big City, which made such an impact in the mid 80s. I read and loved it back then, but would something so much of the period hold up? I've barely begun it, but so far the answer is yes: much of the writing is as good as I recall.
The Page 69 Test: Rusted Souls.
--Marshal Zeringue
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