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Colouring in
Colouring In is the story of James Clifton, a chronic underachiever who has failed to fulfil his potential and exists too easily in a world where he shouldn't belong.
As the 1980s draw to a close, James is lurching from drama to crisis to impasse. His present and future are inhibited by his reliance on a rose-tinted vision of his past. His talents as an Artist are submerged in a morass of indecision and poor self-esteem. He is holding too many last straws.
But when it seems James has reached the very bottom of all that is wrong, a letter arrives that changes his life forever. An admirer, who James cannot place in his previous history, becomes the catalyst for transformation and evolution. He learns that not everything he holds dear is quite as he wants to remember it.
He finds himself on a path that reveals a new future, based on a different past.
Colouring In explores the ways in which inadequacy, perceived or real, can become a block to creativity and ambition. It is also a love story.
Set in England (and in France for part of the story), Colouring In has some laugh out loud moments and graphic sex scenes and language.
As the 1980s draw to a close, James is lurching from drama to crisis to impasse. His present and future are inhibited by his reliance on a rose-tinted vision of his past. His talents as an Artist are submerged in a morass of indecision and poor self-esteem. He is holding too many last straws.
But when it seems James has reached the very bottom of all that is wrong, a letter arrives that changes his life forever. An admirer, who James cannot place in his previous history, becomes the catalyst for transformation and evolution. He learns that not everything he holds dear is quite as he wants to remember it.
He finds himself on a path that reveals a new future, based on a different past.
Colouring In explores the ways in which inadequacy, perceived or real, can become a block to creativity and ambition. It is also a love story.
Set in England (and in France for part of the story), Colouring In has some laugh out loud moments and graphic sex scenes and language.
475 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 21, 2019
2 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Nigel Stewart
17 books14 followersI was born in Corbridge, Northumberland and lived in the north east of England until I was seven. My parents uprooted the family in 1966 and we moved to live in Hereford, where I went to Broadlands CP School and Hereford Cathedral School. I started piano lessons when I was nine and sang as a chorister in Hereford Cathedral for four years - and am very proud to have been head chorister for part of that time. Music was a massive part of my childhood and adolescence, so it probably isn't a surprise that I ended up in a rock band called Gruin, formed with schoolmates.
I wasn't particularly academic and left education at 19 after pretty miserable exam results. My day job took me to Berkshire, where I lived in and around Slough for ten years before moving to Lancashire in 1989. Life as a musician dwindled during my late 20s and, eager to sustain my creativity, I started writing the book that became Colouring In in 1990.
During the late 90s I was married, and have two fabulous children - Alana and Jacob.
Colouring In was self published in 2016, which led to an amazing collaboration with Purple Parrot Publishing on each of my three published books.
As I write this bio, a 4th Novel - Justinian's Daughters - is finished and I've begun work on a 5th.
I wasn't particularly academic and left education at 19 after pretty miserable exam results. My day job took me to Berkshire, where I lived in and around Slough for ten years before moving to Lancashire in 1989. Life as a musician dwindled during my late 20s and, eager to sustain my creativity, I started writing the book that became Colouring In in 1990.
During the late 90s I was married, and have two fabulous children - Alana and Jacob.
Colouring In was self published in 2016, which led to an amazing collaboration with Purple Parrot Publishing on each of my three published books.
As I write this bio, a 4th Novel - Justinian's Daughters - is finished and I've begun work on a 5th.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 19, 2020
I really loved this book. Nigel’s written dialogue is superb. I felt like the characters were people I already knew & they I was eavesdropping on their conversations! Wonderfully written & easy to read, highly recommended!
Merged review:
I really loved this book. Nigel’s written dialogue is superb. I felt like the characters were people I already knew & they I was eavesdropping on their conversations! Wonderfully written & easy to read, highly recommended!
Merged review:
I really loved this book. Nigel’s written dialogue is superb. I felt like the characters were people I already knew & they I was eavesdropping on their conversations! Wonderfully written & easy to read, highly recommended!
June 18, 2020
This novel has made me smile, laugh, suffer, weep and wonder.
The story of the very talented James Clifton leaving his conveniently numb comfort zone of chronic underachievement to become his own person and allow true love to find him, is heartfelt, heartbreaking and heart-expanding. The coexistence of ennui, exhilaration, tragedy, hope and bliss in James' life make the story and its protagonist both relatable and loveable.
James' creator Nigel Stewart uses a language that is masterfully subtle and striking where needed. The 80s Britpop soundtrack embedded in the storyline is the cherry on the icing.
The story of the very talented James Clifton leaving his conveniently numb comfort zone of chronic underachievement to become his own person and allow true love to find him, is heartfelt, heartbreaking and heart-expanding. The coexistence of ennui, exhilaration, tragedy, hope and bliss in James' life make the story and its protagonist both relatable and loveable.
James' creator Nigel Stewart uses a language that is masterfully subtle and striking where needed. The 80s Britpop soundtrack embedded in the storyline is the cherry on the icing.
August 11, 2020
Outstanding read! Didn’t disappoint. It is the story of James Clifton a chronic underachiever struggling to find his way and realize his true potential. It is set in the late 1980’s in Great Britain.
I found myself wanting, at times, to take the characters by the shoulders and shake them, make them see what was in front of them! The characters were ‘all-to-real’; reminding me of people I know—and even myself.
Colouring In is extremely well written. It is frustrating, funny, serious, and sad. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry. It is a reflection of real life. It will not disappoint! Highly recommended!!!
I found myself wanting, at times, to take the characters by the shoulders and shake them, make them see what was in front of them! The characters were ‘all-to-real’; reminding me of people I know—and even myself.
Colouring In is extremely well written. It is frustrating, funny, serious, and sad. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry. It is a reflection of real life. It will not disappoint! Highly recommended!!!
July 7, 2021
Colouring In is a close study of a character whose flaws and weaknesses emerge through a pattern of repeated behaviour. We see James Clifton attending parties, drifting through work social events, hanging out with old friends, harking back to his Hereford adolescence with a kind of Peter Pan syndrome, refusing to let go of the past. At first, I found the cyclical nature of James’ habits a bit repetitive, but I gradually realised that the author is setting up the trap that the protagonist has found himself in so that he can be sprung from it, with the help of Laura.
Just as I was getting to the point where I really wanted something to HAPPEN, it DOES, and in the most dramatic fashion. At this stage the book really picked up for me, and the ways in which James breaks free of his imagined restraints and starts to forge a new path is psychologically complex and fascinating. This is a very philosophical book, both in its tight focus on one character’s emotional journey, and in the way the characters relate to each other. No conversation seems entirely casual – there is always an attempt to read each other, to analyse, to delve beneath the surface. This makes for a surprisingly intense read, even when the plot itself is backgrounded. The emphasis on James’ psyche occasionally felt claustrophobic, especially as I didn’t find him particularly sympathetic as a character, but again, I think this effect is necessary so that we can follow him on his transformation. The female characters really come into their own in the second half of the book, and I enjoyed the latter part of the novel a lot.
If you like intelligent, detailed character portraits with a psychological focus, you will find much to enjoy in Stewart’s novel. This ‘portrait of the artist as not such a young man’ is intriguing and thoughtful, and although it was a slow burner for me, I very much liked where it ended up.
Just as I was getting to the point where I really wanted something to HAPPEN, it DOES, and in the most dramatic fashion. At this stage the book really picked up for me, and the ways in which James breaks free of his imagined restraints and starts to forge a new path is psychologically complex and fascinating. This is a very philosophical book, both in its tight focus on one character’s emotional journey, and in the way the characters relate to each other. No conversation seems entirely casual – there is always an attempt to read each other, to analyse, to delve beneath the surface. This makes for a surprisingly intense read, even when the plot itself is backgrounded. The emphasis on James’ psyche occasionally felt claustrophobic, especially as I didn’t find him particularly sympathetic as a character, but again, I think this effect is necessary so that we can follow him on his transformation. The female characters really come into their own in the second half of the book, and I enjoyed the latter part of the novel a lot.
If you like intelligent, detailed character portraits with a psychological focus, you will find much to enjoy in Stewart’s novel. This ‘portrait of the artist as not such a young man’ is intriguing and thoughtful, and although it was a slow burner for me, I very much liked where it ended up.
November 20, 2023
A really impressive debut novel from Nigel Stewart.
James Clifton really is an "every man". A talented artist stuck in a dull office job with 'prospects', a relationship that's going nowhere and with a group of friends from his teenage years to whom he clings through thick and thin, even though they've long since drfted apart.
Into this group comes Laura, a girl from his past that he has no recollection of. James and Laura build a life together until they reach a point in the narrative where they are pulled apart.
We follow James's journey through the ebbs and flows of his 30s, his trials and tribulations with friends, family, work colleagues and less-than-honest experts who pass through his life until he achieves both the commercial success and personal fulfillment that had eluded him before.
A fantastic, slow burn of a novel. It's hard to believe that this is a debut, it's so confident in its style. Impeccably well researched (trust me, I checked out perfume release dates in the UK to make absolutely sure!) and atmospheric, you feel as though you're there in the late 80s and early 90s in the sweaty clubs, open plan office spaces, the horrors of work evenings out and house parties.
Thanks to Nigel, I was completely engaged with James's life, strengths and insecurities to the point where I wanted to hug him and shake him in equal measure.
Highly recommended.
James Clifton really is an "every man". A talented artist stuck in a dull office job with 'prospects', a relationship that's going nowhere and with a group of friends from his teenage years to whom he clings through thick and thin, even though they've long since drfted apart.
Into this group comes Laura, a girl from his past that he has no recollection of. James and Laura build a life together until they reach a point in the narrative where they are pulled apart.
We follow James's journey through the ebbs and flows of his 30s, his trials and tribulations with friends, family, work colleagues and less-than-honest experts who pass through his life until he achieves both the commercial success and personal fulfillment that had eluded him before.
A fantastic, slow burn of a novel. It's hard to believe that this is a debut, it's so confident in its style. Impeccably well researched (trust me, I checked out perfume release dates in the UK to make absolutely sure!) and atmospheric, you feel as though you're there in the late 80s and early 90s in the sweaty clubs, open plan office spaces, the horrors of work evenings out and house parties.
Thanks to Nigel, I was completely engaged with James's life, strengths and insecurities to the point where I wanted to hug him and shake him in equal measure.
Highly recommended.
November 18, 2021
Initially, I was swept away with this book and could not put it down. Part of my addiction was the character of Laura, whom I wrongly assumed was going to be the vindictive bunny-boiler! Perhaps I have read too many psychological thrillers recently and had some subconscious expectation. But Laura was not a likeable character: I found her obsessive, controlling, and jealous. (Did I mention suffocating too?) I was shocked at what happened to her but won’t spoil for other readers.
I was not disappointed for long, since the character of James evolved with so many complexities, and I found him captivating. His journey of self-discovery was expertly depicted and something I could relate to. I loved the depth of his character and I do love a satisfying ending!
This book was written superbly. It was well researched, accurate, with a great deal of humour and philosophical narrative. I wonder if the author’s creative mind was explored through that of the artist at times. Whilst written with great intellect, it was very accessible and easy to read. (I hate a book that throws you out with overblown vocabulary). I am astounded this is the Author’s first book, and will certainly be reading more of his books.
I was not disappointed for long, since the character of James evolved with so many complexities, and I found him captivating. His journey of self-discovery was expertly depicted and something I could relate to. I loved the depth of his character and I do love a satisfying ending!
This book was written superbly. It was well researched, accurate, with a great deal of humour and philosophical narrative. I wonder if the author’s creative mind was explored through that of the artist at times. Whilst written with great intellect, it was very accessible and easy to read. (I hate a book that throws you out with overblown vocabulary). I am astounded this is the Author’s first book, and will certainly be reading more of his books.
December 14, 2020
I’d so happily recommend this - really captured that feeling of dissatisfaction with growing up and trying to hold on to the glory days so perfectly for me! Real, nuanced, imperfect characters who took me through every emotion (did I love them, did I hate them - I still don’t know!) and the kind of conversations and dialogue I could imagine going on in any relationship or friendship up and down the country.
Whilst I couldn’t relate to everything, as this is obviously told from a male perspective and some aspects are very male (yes I mean the bits about women/sex!), I found myself really invested in our lead character James, and got quite emotional throughout the story as he goes from hope to tragedy and everywhere in between.
Great writing and look forward to reading more from the author!
Whilst I couldn’t relate to everything, as this is obviously told from a male perspective and some aspects are very male (yes I mean the bits about women/sex!), I found myself really invested in our lead character James, and got quite emotional throughout the story as he goes from hope to tragedy and everywhere in between.
Great writing and look forward to reading more from the author!
May 13, 2023
Colouring In is an absorbing story of self-discovery following James Clifton as he journeys through self-doubt to self-belief. His carefully observed relationships with friends, old and new, give insight and depth to his personality. From clinging to his past, to reaching out to his future, we accompany James through all the troubles life throws at him. There are times when we want to shake him, to cheer him on, to cry with him and to laugh with him as the author takes us on a rollercoaster of emotions, sparing James nothing. The varied characters we meet are relatable as are the sights and sounds of the late 80s/early90s. This book is more than a love story, but like all good love stories, the ending is filled with hope and happiness.
August 14, 2022
James is not the easiest character to like, although he is relatable! Quite honestly, I felt like giving him a good shake once or twice :) This is a slow burn of a book with a psychological deep dive into the main character's thoughts and feelings. The 1980s setting feels authentic and familiar and I enjoyed that aspect of it too. The pace of the story picks up in the latter half of the book as new relationships take shape and force James out of his self-imposed mindset. It is a love story, although perhaps not as much of a love story as I would like - although that's my bias talking! A good read.
February 5, 2021
Wasn't sure to start with. But it the book opens tarts 1989. A year I remember as turning 20, when I moved away from home for the first and had my own experience of adult independence. So I found it easy to immerse myself in the world of James and his family and friends. Then Laura entered the scene and I was hooked. Nigel Stewart paints a vivid world of believable, down to earth characters and their dialogue, emotions and timelines feel real. You never know quite what's coming next. I loved this story and didn't want to get to the end (but glad I did).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 20, 2021
It starts with a snowball fight and just gets better and better!
This story is lovely, funny, full of pathos and so well written. It's about making changes to make things better, and I felt like all the characters were people I'd met at some point in my life.
The pace of the book flowed well and drew me along with it.
Definitely a must read!
This story is lovely, funny, full of pathos and so well written. It's about making changes to make things better, and I felt like all the characters were people I'd met at some point in my life.
The pace of the book flowed well and drew me along with it.
Definitely a must read!
August 20, 2022
First time I've read this author so wasn't at all sure where the story was heading. No spoilers but I wasn't expecting where it did go. Am looking forward to reading the next 2 books by Nigel which are on my TBR shelf as I follow him on Twitter and one day he tweeted asking whether anyone wanted to buy his books. I admired his sauce (he's also given himself 5 stars on here) so bought the bundle of three.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews