David Nicholls

The Starter for Ten author chats to Mariella about the format of his latest novel – snapshots of a relationship over a twenty-year period – while somehow managing not to give away the ending...

Watch David Nicholls on The Book Show:

If you like a bit of humour in your fiction, you’re probably familiar with David Nicholls, whose bestselling novel Starter for Ten was selected for Richard and Judy’s Book Club in 2004, on which programme comedian Jenny Eclair recommended it with the words; “A classic...I sniggered, snorted and hooted.”

Born in Hampshire in 1966, Nicholls attended the local comprehensive school, where, in his own words, during the course of his education, he “wanted to be a doctor, an actor, a drummer, a palaeontologist, a comic book artist and a marine biologist. He eventually settled on pursuing a career as an actor however, and after studying English and Drama at Bristol University, he won a scholarship to study at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, before returning to London in 1991. There he worked in a number of bars and restaurants before finally earning an Equity card. He worked sporadically as an actor for the next eight years, appearing in plays at Battersea Arts Centre, the Finborough, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Birmingham Rep, and working at Waterstones, Notting Hill during the periods he was ‘resting’.

A three year stint at the Royal National Theatre followed, understudying and playing small parts, and, during this period, he also began to read plays and film scripts as a freelance reader, before taking a job at BBC Radio Drama as a script reader/researcher. Around this time, Nicholls also began to write seriously, developing an adaptation of Sam Shepard’s stage play Simpatico with old friend and director Matthew Warchus, as well as writing his first original script, Waiting, a sitcom about frustrated waiters, which was later optioned by the BBC. Simpatico was turned into a feature film in 1999, starring Sharon Stone, Catherine Keener, Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte and Albert Finney. This allowed Nicholls the luxury of writing full-time, and his first TV production followed soon afterwards; I Saw You, a one-off romantic-comedy starring Paul Rhys and Fay Ripley, which won best single play at the annual BANFF television festival. Episodes of hit comedy-drama Cold Feet followed, as well as a much-praised modern version of Much Ado About Nothing and an adaptation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, both for the BBC, and since then David has written for film and TV as well as fiction. He has been twice nominated for BAFTA awards and his first novel, Starter for Ten was featured on the first Richard and Judy Book Club. His third novel, One Day, was published in 2009 to great acclaim, and stayed in the Sunday Times top ten bestseller list for ten weeks on publication. Nicholls lives in London with his partner and two children.


One Day
'I can imagine you at forty,' she said, a hint of malice in her voice. 'I can picture it right now.' He smiled without opening his eyes. 'Go on then.' 15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows? Twenty years, two people, one day...

Read more about One Day at Lovereading.co.uk