Beverly Nichols: A Life by Bryan Connon

Timber Press, 2005

 

I was intrigued by this (authorized, I think) biography of the English 20th-century writer Beverly Nichols.  It follows Nichols from his birth at the turn of the century to his death in 1983.  Nichols was extremely prolific, publishing more than 50 books during his lifetime, which included novels, plays, poetry, memoir and autobiography, political and religious non-fiction, mysteries, and books about homes and gardens, a series of which, beginning with Down the Garden Path, he was best known for.

Nichols, a  homosexual, was friends with both Noel Coward and Cecil Beaton, and was extremely social within theatrical, publishing, and royal circles.  He was a terrible and well-known snob and very ambitious, and consequently not particularly nice.  He often wrote dishonestly about himself and those around him, particularly his mother, who he adored, and his father, who he reviled.

All this makes for a rather unsavory, but busy and interesting life, and the biography is very well researched and written with elan.  And Connon is often brutally honest about his subject's shortcomings, which makes for a brisk and bracing read.

Nichols with some local talent