What do you think?
Rate this book
The Trial of True Love
Fast-paced, beautifully crafted, and intellectually stimulating, The Trial of True Love is a captivating exploration of the nature of love, its elusiveness, and most of all, the universal human need to find it.
Bron is a thirty-year-old writer living in London, a seemingly incurable heartbreaker and dodger of commitment. He is fascinated by the symbolist artist Paul Marotte and has made the artist the center of a book he is writing about love at first sight. On a visit to a friend’s country house, Bron encounters the beautiful, enigmatic Flora and suddenly the theme of his book takes on a completely new, intensely personal dimension.
His pursuit of Flora takes him to Amsterdam, where a mysterious art collector offers to help him find the object of his desire, and the search for “true love” takes surprising twists.
With the touch of a master, William Nicholson weaves thought-provoking reflections on art, literature, and human nature in a suspense-filled love story—a novel that touches both the heart and the mind.
Bron is a thirty-year-old writer living in London, a seemingly incurable heartbreaker and dodger of commitment. He is fascinated by the symbolist artist Paul Marotte and has made the artist the center of a book he is writing about love at first sight. On a visit to a friend’s country house, Bron encounters the beautiful, enigmatic Flora and suddenly the theme of his book takes on a completely new, intensely personal dimension.
His pursuit of Flora takes him to Amsterdam, where a mysterious art collector offers to help him find the object of his desire, and the search for “true love” takes surprising twists.
With the touch of a master, William Nicholson weaves thought-provoking reflections on art, literature, and human nature in a suspense-filled love story—a novel that touches both the heart and the mind.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
3 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
About the author
William Nicholson
219 books482 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
William Nicholson was born in 1948, and grew up in Sussex and Gloucestershire. His plays for television include Shadowlands and Life Story , both of which won the BAFTA Best Television Drama award in their year; other award-winners were Sweet As You Are and The March . In 1988 he received the Royal Television Society's Writer's Award. His first play, an adaptation of Shadowlands for the stage, was Evening Standard Best Play of 1990, and went on to a Tony Award winning run on Broadway. He was nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay of the film version, which was directed by Richard Attenborough and starred Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.
Since then he has written more films - Sarafina, Nell, First Knight, Grey Owl , and Gladiator (as co-writer), for which he received a second Oscar nomination. He has written and directed his own film, Firelight ; and three further stage plays, Map of the Heart , Katherine Howard and The Retreat from Moscow , which ran for five months on Broadway and received three Tony Award nominations.
His novel for older children, The Wind Singer, won the Smarties Prize Gold Award on publication in 2000, and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award in 2001. Its sequel, Slaves of the Mastery , was published in May 2001, and the final volume in the trilogy, Firesong , in May 2002. The trilogy has been sold in every major foreign market, from the US to China.
He is now at work on a new sequence of novels for older children, called The Noble Warriors . The first book, Seeker , was published in the UK in September 2005.The second book, Jango, in 2006 and the third book NOMAN, will be published in September 2007.
His novels for adults are The Society of Others (April 2004) and The Trial of True Love (April 2005).
He lives in Sussex with his wife Virginia and their three children.
from williamnicholson.co.uk
William Nicholson was born in 1948, and grew up in Sussex and Gloucestershire. His plays for television include Shadowlands and Life Story , both of which won the BAFTA Best Television Drama award in their year; other award-winners were Sweet As You Are and The March . In 1988 he received the Royal Television Society's Writer's Award. His first play, an adaptation of Shadowlands for the stage, was Evening Standard Best Play of 1990, and went on to a Tony Award winning run on Broadway. He was nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay of the film version, which was directed by Richard Attenborough and starred Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.
Since then he has written more films - Sarafina, Nell, First Knight, Grey Owl , and Gladiator (as co-writer), for which he received a second Oscar nomination. He has written and directed his own film, Firelight ; and three further stage plays, Map of the Heart , Katherine Howard and The Retreat from Moscow , which ran for five months on Broadway and received three Tony Award nominations.
His novel for older children, The Wind Singer, won the Smarties Prize Gold Award on publication in 2000, and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award in 2001. Its sequel, Slaves of the Mastery , was published in May 2001, and the final volume in the trilogy, Firesong , in May 2002. The trilogy has been sold in every major foreign market, from the US to China.
He is now at work on a new sequence of novels for older children, called The Noble Warriors . The first book, Seeker , was published in the UK in September 2005.The second book, Jango, in 2006 and the third book NOMAN, will be published in September 2007.
His novels for adults are The Society of Others (April 2004) and The Trial of True Love (April 2005).
He lives in Sussex with his wife Virginia and their three children.
from williamnicholson.co.uk
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 7, 2019
Broke and aspiring author Bron is a cynic who has never told anyone he loves them in his 29 years. However his life dramatically changes when he encounters the beautiful Flora in the countryside, and falls in love at first sight. The catch? She has no interest in him.
This is a slow, meandering story that reads a bit like a Richard Curtis film. We spend much of the first half of the book following our narrator around as he does research for his upcoming book. It is hard to see what he sees in Flora really as she is so dismissive of him most of the time.
The final third of the novel is a real improvement as the story wraps up. However .
Four stars mostly for the ending which I very much enjoyed.
This is a slow, meandering story that reads a bit like a Richard Curtis film. We spend much of the first half of the book following our narrator around as he does research for his upcoming book. It is hard to see what he sees in Flora really as she is so dismissive of him most of the time.
The final third of the novel is a real improvement as the story wraps up. However .
Four stars mostly for the ending which I very much enjoyed.
June 7, 2013
My wife put this book down after 35 pages, couldn't stand it. To my surprise, by page 35 I was getting into the book, enjoying the characters and the developing story line. It is full of interesting dialog, of questions about love and art, with more answers than questions. What is the right answer to the question being asked? There are many twists and turns, especially towards the end of the novel. I like, a lot, the this author puts a story together.
March 29, 2012
I really liked this book. The characters were believable and the ending was great; it kept surprising me. It was about a man writing a book about whether it is possible to fall in love at first sight and whether true love is possible. It was quite philosophical and had lots of quotations, which I liked!
September 26, 2014
A slightly surprising turn of events, but it is possible that I had hoped for that exact ending. Nicholson once again brings his talent of storytelling to the fore. And it is a topic we all desperately want to decipher.
March 8, 2014
On my list of favourites. Wonderful story with much to say that's true about male emotions
February 19, 2015
Does love at first sight exist? Can men and women be friends? Is love possible without lust? If you know a painting is a fake, does it change how you feel about it? The title sums it up.
February 6, 2025
honest to god this should be a 0 star.
im so tired of men writing novels about love and trying to justify rape, trying to pass it as the only possible option because she has clearly given signs that she wanted him before. This author actually writes how this woman says no, says stop, resists, then goes limp and starts crying, and trough all this we get the narration in his pov, like the rest of the book. He says he is tired of hearing sorry and stop??? and the cherry on top is than later is revealed that the woman was a liar all along, so well that rape wasn't truly a rape because ya know? it was justified? wtf like who proof read this and though this would contribute anything to society, literature or the world in general?
And please don't come to me with the "is just fiction, it portrays a reality blah blah blah" if in order to write your story you need to make your female characters go trough acts of sexual violent just yo "build the character" or "make the plot continue" you are a shitshow of a writer. And most of all, how can someone be so hypocritical to write about rape like is a bad thing that should be comndend after just writing a rape scene while justifying it. Honestly make it make sense
im so tired of men writing novels about love and trying to justify rape, trying to pass it as the only possible option because she has clearly given signs that she wanted him before. This author actually writes how this woman says no, says stop, resists, then goes limp and starts crying, and trough all this we get the narration in his pov, like the rest of the book. He says he is tired of hearing sorry and stop??? and the cherry on top is than later is revealed that the woman was a liar all along, so well that rape wasn't truly a rape because ya know? it was justified? wtf like who proof read this and though this would contribute anything to society, literature or the world in general?
And please don't come to me with the "is just fiction, it portrays a reality blah blah blah" if in order to write your story you need to make your female characters go trough acts of sexual violent just yo "build the character" or "make the plot continue" you are a shitshow of a writer. And most of all, how can someone be so hypocritical to write about rape like is a bad thing that should be comndend after just writing a rape scene while justifying it. Honestly make it make sense
September 28, 2020
This is about a man trying to find true love.
It has its moments - some of them are quite interesting, many of them are tedious in the extreme.
You get the sense that this book may have started off as an academic treatise, and somewhere along the line it morphed into a novel. although it din't quite morph enough to make it either an educational or a particularly entertaining experience for the reader.
But as I say, it had some touchstone moments, so not a complete waste of time.
It has its moments - some of them are quite interesting, many of them are tedious in the extreme.
You get the sense that this book may have started off as an academic treatise, and somewhere along the line it morphed into a novel. although it din't quite morph enough to make it either an educational or a particularly entertaining experience for the reader.
But as I say, it had some touchstone moments, so not a complete waste of time.
April 1, 2024
The ending felt sooo rushed - was it all just kitsch? Does it matter? I did enjoy this one a lot. The unsaturated romance against a semi-gothic backdrop, the pseudo-intellectual discussions on love, truth, art and objectification in a droughty English country house… I liked traipsing around this world full of cunning, beautiful artists. I did not need to know about their so-called real lives.
June 22, 2020
"Is falling in love, in its most intense form, a game only one can play?" (p.22)
April 2, 2023
This book utterly engaged me. Atmospheric and compelling.
August 21, 2025
I liked the beginning, was less keen on the second half of the book. William Nicholson writes well, but I didn't think this was one of his best.
July 28, 2011
An exploration of what "true love" means, drawing upon philosophy, art history (and fake art history), psychology, and so on. The characters seem a little too like the puppets of the author for this to really grab the reader at an emotional level, and the whole thing reminded me very strongly of The Magus (John Fowles). But it's a worthwhile read and to be applauded for trying to tackle such weighty issues.
August 9, 2007
Enjoyed this one. Well written and amusing story of a middle class family loosing the plot...and maybe finding a way...
Must check out more books by William Nicholson
Must check out more books by William Nicholson
May 12, 2011
Really enjoyed the first half of the book. Weak movie-of-the-week ending.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews