Nicholas Evans

Writer - fiction

Add to shortlist

Books

Agent: Caradoc King
Assistant: Becky Percival

Books

Nicholas Evans was born in 1950 in Worcestershire, was educated at Bromsgrove School, and then read Law at Oxford. During the 1970s he cut his teeth as a trainee journalist and then as a TV reporter, specializing in US politics and foreign affairs, most notably covering the war in Beirut. By the 1980s he was at London Weekend Television, producing award-winning films on Laurence Olivier, Francis Bacon and David Hockney for The South Bank Show. His next film on director David Lean proved a turning point. Lean became a friend and mentor, encouraging him to start writing and producing independently of LWT. His credits as a screenwriter and film producer include MURDER BY THE BOOK, starring Peggy Ashcroft and Ian Holm; ACT OF BETRAYAL, with Patrick Bergin and Elliott Gould; SECRET WEAPON, a TV film about the Israeli atomic atom spy Mordechai Vanunu, with Griffin Dunne and Karen Allen; and JUST LIKE A WOMAN, with Julie Walters and Adrian Pasdar.

Nicholas Evans’ first novel, THE HORSE WHISPERER (Transworld), has sold more than twenty million copies worldwide since its publication in 1995 and has been translated into a total of 36 languages. It was made into the biggest Hollywood film of 1998, produced and directed by and starring Robert Redford. It coincided with the publication of his second novel, also an international bestseller, THE LOOP. His third novel, THE SMOKE JUMPER, was published in the autumn of 2001. THE DIVIDE, published in October 2005, was described in the Daily Mail as 'a fine and multi-faceted thriller' and in the Daily Mirror as 'pure drama and tragedy, expertly told...his understanding of love and the human heart is spot on'. Nicholas's latest novel, THE BRAVE, was published in the autumn of 2010.

Little, Brown will release a special 25th anniversary edition of THE HORSE WHISPERER in November 2020, including a brand new foreword from the author.

Fiction

Publication DetailsNotes

THE BRAVE

2010

UK: Little, Brown; US: Little, Brown; Catalan: Grup 62 ; Chinese (simplified): Hunan; Dutch: Boekerij; French: Albin Michel; Ger

1959: There’s little love in eight-year-old Tom Bedford’s life – and even less when he is sent away to a brutal English boarding school, bristling with bullies and sadistic staff. The only comfort he gets is from his fantasy world of Cowboys & Indians. When his sister Diane, a rising star of stage and screen, falls in love with one of his idols, the suave TV cowboy Ray Montane, Tom’s life is transformed. They move to Hollywood and all his dreams seem to have come true. Soon, however, the sinister side of Tinseltown will cast its shadow and a shocking act of violence will change their lives forever.

2007: What happened all those years ago remains a secret that corrodes Tom’s life and wrecks his marriage. Only when his estranged son is charged with murder do the events resurface, forcing him to confront his demons. As he struggles to save his son’s life, he will learn the true meaning of bravery.

Powerfully written and intensely moving, THE BRAVE explores our quest for love and identity, the fallibility of heroes and of parents and the devastating effects of family secrets.

THE SMOKE JUMPER

2006

UK: Transworld (hardback), Little, Brown (paperback); US: Penguin; Bulgarian: Hermes; Chinese (simplified): Bertelsmann Asia; Cz

Connor Ford and Ed Tully are best friends, but they couldn’t be less alike: one the laconic son of a rancher, with a gift for taking stunning photographs, the other an extrovert musician. They do, however, share two passions. The first is for spending their summer vacations parachuting into the remote wilderness of America to fight forest fires. The second is for Ed’s girlfriend, a beautiful teacher called Julia Bishop. The golden summer these three young people spend together is shattered by a single shaft of lightning and the ensuing inferno changes their lives forever.
Set against the vast backdrop of the American West and the wilds of Africa, THE SMOKE JUMPER is an epic story of friendship, passion and honour that charts three people's quest for happiness and self discovery.

THE DIVIDE

2005

UK: Transworld (hardback), Little, Brown (paperback); US: Penguin; Bulgarian: Hermes; Chinese (simplified): Bertelsmann Asia; Cz

On a crystalline morning at the cusp of spring, two backcountry skiers find the body of a young woman embedded in the ice of a remote mountain creek. All through the night police work with floodlights and chainsaws to prise her out. Identifying her takes no time at all. For Abbie Cooper is on law-enforcement computers all across America, wanted for murder and acts of eco-terrorism. But how did she die? And what was the trail of events that led this golden child of a loving family so tragically astray?
Ten years after his phenomenal international bestseller THE HORSE WHISPERER, Nicholas Evans returns with his most moving and heart-rending novel to date, THE DIVIDE.

On a journey of discovery and redemption that leads from the streets of New York to the daunting grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, THE DIVIDE tells the story of a family fractured by betrayal and struggling in search of lost happiness. It examines the pain we inflict on those we love the most and explores the passions and needs, the dashed hopes and disillusionments that connect and divide all men and women.

From its electrifying start to its ultimate devastating revelation, THE DIVIDE is an extraordinary and masterful thriller of the human heart.

THE HORSE WHISPERER

1995

UK: Litlle, Brown US: Penguin Random House

When Grace Maclean and her beloved horse, Pilgrim, are hit by a truck one snow-covered morning, their destinies become inextricably bound to one another. Though both manage to survive the tragedy, the impact on their lives is devastating; both horse and girl are traumatised and profoundly changed. Beside herself with worry, Grace's mother, Annie Macean, hears about a man called Tom Brooker, a 'whisperer' said to possess the gift of healing troubled horses. He is her last hope and she decides to abandon her life in upstate New York, setting off across the continent with Grace and Pilgrim to find him. This journey, under the sweeping Montana sky, will change all their lives for ever.