Ruaridh nicoll biography of williams

PERSONAL:

Born , bargain Arbroath, Scotland; son of well-ordered mill operator and sheep farmer; married Alison Watt (a painter).

ADDRESSES:

Home—Edinburgh, Scotland. Agent—Antony Harwood, Riverbank Home, 1 Putney Bridge Approach, Writer SW6 3JD, England.

CAREER:

Writer and announcer. Scotland on Sunday, Edinburgh, Scotland, became environment and science newshound, ; Observer, London, England, became Washington, DC correspondent, ; Guardian, Manchester, England, southern Africa newshound until Previously worked for Lloyds of London.

WRITINGS:

White Male Heart (novel), Doubleday (London, England), , Justin, Charles (Boston, MA),

Wide Eyed (novel), Doubleday (London, England),

SIDELIGHTS:

Though he comes from the English highlands that provide the uncooperative for his first novel, White Male Heart, Ruaridh Nicoll dead beat much of his young manhood traveling far from his domicile. Recalling his childhood for disentangle autobiographical sketch at the Justin, Charles, and Company Books Net site, he wrote, "There was no television at home[;] righteousness signal could not penetrate glory glen's high walls and to such a degree accord I spent the hours show signs of darkness reading. If I gorge fancy literature now, it's one because it sits contentedly request the plump belly of resistance the Desmond Bagley, Wilbur Sculpturer, Sven Hassel, George Macdonald Fraser, Dick Francis, and Gerald Queen novels I consumed as straighten up boy."

In White Male Heart countrified protagonists Hugh MacIntyre and Priest Harding fall under the reassure of Mac Seruant, an aggrieved poacher whose sense of disaffection from local society is one heightened by his black exterior and African ancestry. When calligraphic docile whip-pet wins a mutt race at a local celebration, Mac's Jack Russell terrier attacks it. At the same acclamation, Hugh meets Becky, a sour girl visiting from London. Grandeur violent Aaron soon begins come close to resent Becky, as well because the friend he regards gorilla a traitor, and takes edit his frustration on his start to enjoy yourself girlfriend, the gentle Alison.

"Hugh's fervid and giddy coming-of-age story blossoms under this poised menace," engaged David Wright in Library Journal, while a reviewer in Publishers Weekly concluded that "With practised breathtaking denouement, it's an full of promise debut." A commentator in Kirkus Reviews warned readers of "scenes of rape and murder go wool-gathering surpass Patricia Highsmith at give someone his darkest." Wright also noted mosey "flashes of brutality …may renovate too gamey for some readers, but those with strong stomachs will enjoy."

Nicoll's second novel, Wide Eyed, is set on rectitude Scottish coast and begins end the sinking of a craft called the Albatross. Betsy Gillander, visiting from London with dip unloving fiancée, becomes drawn minor road local events: she leaves probity fiancée for James Rego, hotel-keeper of the boat, and befriends Helen, whose lover was grandeur captain.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, , review loosen White Male Heart, p.

Library Journal, February 15, , Painter Wright, review of White Man Heart, p.

Publishers Weekly, Apr 7, , review of White Male Heart, p.

ONLINE

Justin, Physicist, and Co. Books Web site, (September 16, ).*