Christopher Nicholson

In 1766, a ship docks at Bristol, England, disgorging a crate with two young elephants in poor health, but alive. A wealthy sugar merchant purchases them for his country estate and turns their care over to a young stable boy, Tom Page. It takes time for T

The Elephant Keeper

A celebrated author, in the winter of his life, awaits a visit from a beautiful young actress - the leading lady in a staging of his most famous tragedy. But his wife is troubled. An anxious and sickly woman, she watches the growing intimacy between her husband and the young woman, and becomes tormented by the idea that they will betray her.

Winter

“[This] beautifully restrained novel, a meditation on aging, marriage and loss, fictionalizes a well-known period in Thomas Hardy’s life” (The New York Times). A November morning in the 1920s finds an elderly man walking the grounds of his Dorchester home, pondering his past and future with deep despondence. That man is the revered novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, and this is a fictionalized account of his final years from the celebrated author of The Elephant Keeper. The novel focuses on true events surrounding the London theater dramatization of Hardy’s acclaimed novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles, including Hardy’s hand-picked casting of the young, alluring Gertrude Bugler to play Tess. As plans for the play solidify, Hardy’s interest in Gertie becomes a voyeuristic infatuation, causing him to write some of the best poems of his career. However, when Hardy’s reclusive, neglected wife, Florence, catches wind of Hardy’s desire for Gertie to take the London stage, a tangled web of jealousy and missed opportunity ensnares all three characters—with devastating results. Told from the perspectives of Hardy, Gertie, and Florence, Winter is “a meditation on love, regret, and an elusive yearning for happiness” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). “A book for grown-ups, one that finds the acme of human happiness in a young mother looking out at a starry winter’s night, while she holds her baby in her arms.” —The Washington Post “Winter is quietly intelligent and compassionate, but what stands out most is that it is gorgeously, gorgeously written in prose so elegantly crafted that it becomes, paradoxically, almost invisible. It never shouts, never startles, just moves lithely along with an almost miraculous sense of rightness.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"I asked the sailor what an Elephant looked like; he replied that it was like nothing on earth." England, 1766: After a long voyage from the East Indies, a ship docks in Bristol, England, and rumor quickly spreads about its unusual cargo—some say a mermaid is on board. A crowd forms, hoping to catch a glimpse of the magical creature. One crate after another is unpacked: a zebra, a leopard, and a baboon. There's no mermaid, but in the final two crates is something almost as magical—a pair of young elephants, in poor health but alive. Seeing a unique opportunity, a wealthy sugar merchant purchases the elephants for his country estate and turns their care over to a young stable boy, Tom Page. Tom's family has long cared for horses, but an elephant is something different altogether. It takes time for Tom and the elephants to understand one another, but to the surprise of everyone on the estate, a remarkable bond is formed. The Elephant Keeper, the story of Tom and the elephants, in Tom's own words, moves from the green fields and woods of the English countryside to the dark streets and alleys of late-eighteenth-century London, reflecting both the beauty and the violence of the age. Nicholson's lush writing and deft storytelling complement a captivating tale of love and loyalty between one man and the two elephants that change the lives of all who meet them.

The Elephant Keeper LP

El cuidador de elefantes

"Enchanting . . . a strange tour of late eighteenth-century England, a natural history of elephants and the story of a most unusual friendship." — The Washington Post A poignant and magical story set in eighteenth-century England, The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson is the tale of two baby elephants and the young man who accidentally finds himself their guardian. Every reader who was enchanted by Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants or enthralled by When Elephants Weep will adore Nicholson's The Elephant Keeper—a masterful blending of historical novel, coming-of-age tale, animal adventure, and love story. "Intensely moving . . . an exceptional novel." — The Boston Globe "Endearing . . . Like the elephant at its centre, Nicholson's book is gentle, profound and sweet-natured." — The Guardian "Bighearted and warm, with a slow-moving kind of grace, the book is very much like the two elephants that inhabit the world of the novel. Elegant and beautiful, the writing is precise and well-paced. The Elephant Keeper is a book that will stay with you long after you have read the last page." —Raleigh News & Observer "An extended meditation on human needs and how our choices shape a better or lesser existence . . . [A] poignant, heartfelt novel." —St. Louis Post Dispatch "Christopher Nicholson traces the arc of Tom and Jenny's surprising journey with delicate empathy. He confronts sex, violence and power, but he does not shy away from less dramatic themes, such as gentleness and companionship, which help to make The Elephant Keeper such a rewarding book." —Times Literary Supplement "The Elephant Keeper is the best book I've read in the past twenty years or so." —Nikki Giovanni, poet

A Novel

Mr. Longstory Meets Mr. Longstory will help provide children with self-confidence and parents with another option to help get their children to sleep in their own beds. Mr. Longstory is brave, helping to rid closets and below beds of those imaginary beasts. When Bobby runs into his parents' room convinced there are monsters in the closet and under the bed, his father brings him back to his room. He finds out that there are Mr. Longstorys and Mrs. Longstorys everywhere. Boys and girls, moms and dads have used what may look like a hand made into a duck's face but is really Mr. and Mrs. Longstory, ready to give courage and fend off all types of monsters. They are always happy, sometimes serious, and have no fear. Bobby can use Mr. Longstory to look in the closet and under the bed first, and he soon learns it's true-monsters are never around when Mr. Longstory is in town!

Mr. Longstory meets Mr. Longstory

Christopher Nicholson vividly describes the construction and history to the present day of some of the world s most famous lighthouses in this classic book which has become the standard work on the subject. It brings the story of the rock lighthouse completely up-to-date from the day the first granite block was laid, through construction, automation, the disappearance of the lighthouse keeper, right up to the technology of today with the use of solar and wind power. This is a joy to read with its mix of exciting text, some of the most dramatic new colour photographs of British lighthouses ever taken, a selection of beautiful, hand-coloured plans and drawings, a brand new chapter about Rockall, the most unusual rock 'lighthouse' of all, and a detailed appendix. For those not intimately connected with the sea it s almost impossible to imagine waves higher than the vessels that sail upon them smashing against half-submerged reefs that stir the whole ocean into a raging foam of white water. Man s struggle to build a permanent and durable structure such as a lighthouse on these sites is a story that cannot fail to stir the emotions of anyone who enjoys tales of endeavour, ingenuity and dogged determination."

Rock Lighthouses of Britain

Een ontroerende roman over de bijzondere band tussen een jongen en een olifant Wanneer de staljongen Tom Page door zijn rijke, excentrieke baas wordt opgezadeld met diens olifant, weet hij nauwelijks iets van deze dieren. Maar nadat Jenny, de olifant, en Tom aan elkaar gewend zijn geraakt, ontstaat een hechte band. Tot Jenny's baas genoeg van haar heeft en Tom alles op alles moet zetten om haar niet te verliezen...

De olifantenjongen

When Thandi Dladla undertakes to coach a young soccer team in a rural school in South Africa she little realizes how it will change her life. When levelling the terrain to make a field she discovers two skeletons which reveal how ninety percent of people became right-handed. This leads Thandi on a journey of discovery which helps her not only to coach her team to success but also to find the murderer of her father, a university professor who fought the Apartheid regime. Because of an obstructive police investigation her brother decides to take the law into his own hands and revenge the killing of his father. As she unveils the clues to the identity of the murderers she learns about the involvement of the State Security Council, a sinister Apartheid body accountable to none that planned and executed the deaths of countless black activists. She also discovers the origins of handedness, the role of the left and right brain in human conduct and the genesis of evil in the world. Her coaching methods in soccer, including encouraging every player to become equal footed, challenge many existing practices and she discovers how to teach her team and students to surpass their previous achievements. Her struggle with the Catholic headmaster explores the influence of religion in society and its juxtaposition with science and witchcraft. In a thrilling series of twists the denouement reveals the dark underbelly of South African society.

A political mystery of South Africa

One Hand Washes The Other

One Hand Washes the Other

'A beautiful book about love and loss, fragility and chance, the wide world and the near world . . . full of intense light and colour, extraordinary glimpses, moving insights and subtle humour.' Richard Kerridge, author of Cold Blood As the summer draws to a close, a few snowbeds - some as big as icebergs - survive in the Scottish Highlands. Christopher Nicholson's Among the Summer Snows is both a celebration of these great, icy relics and an intensely personal meditation on their significance. A book to delight all those interested in mountains and snow, full of vivid description and anecdote, it explores the meanings of nature, beauty and mortality in the twenty-first century. 'This ravishingly lovely book is about thought-snow, summer snow, flight, falling, stillness, memory, loss, mountains, Time, death, survival and everything in between. It is an intense scrutiny of minute worlds, a roaming gaze into the vastness of space, intimate, introspective and questioning.' Keggie Carew, author of Dadland

In Search of Scotland's Last Snows

Among the Summer Snows

We've been sending one another postcards for well over a century now usually brief messages to our friends and family telling them about the weather on our holidays or where we're visiting next on our travels. A hundred years ago we sent postcards with more serious messages important, personal information about births, marriages and deaths, urgent requests for help, or just to keep in touch before the use of the telephone became widespread. The choice of subjects featured on postcards today is vast, but amongst the most popular has always been the lighthouse a symbol of safety and reliability, and evidence of Man's basic instinct to warn and reassure. Over the years, almost every British lighthouse has featured on a postcard of some description, and the ones with easy access are regularly updated with different views. This new book from Christopher Nicholson, author of the highly-acclaimed Rock Lighthouses of Britain, concentrates on vintage postcards featuring the remotest lighthouses of all. Within these pages are snapshots of the past and moments in time from the very edge of Britain granite pillars rising from sea-swept reefs or the lights on uninhabited storm-lashed islets dotted around the coasts of England, Wales and Scotland. Some of these cards are artists' impressions, some are hand-tinted, while others are real sepia or black and white photographs but they all show how things used to look and how life used to be at the very extremes of offshore Britain. Due to their age these postcards are now valuable documents of social history keepers posing with their families or being relieved at the end of their stint of duty and they also illustrate the changing appearance of the lighthouses, together with the appalling weather the keepers endured. Proof, if such were needed, that there was nowhere too isolated nor weather too rough that would daunt the determined postcard photographer! It was perhaps because of the very remoteness of the lighthouses that drew people to buy the postcards and these evocative photographs will invoke an appreciation of those bygone times. With chapters on 'pillar lights', 'island lights', 'relief days', 'wild winds and white water' and 'curiosities' the author has been given unique access to the collections of private individuals and lighthouse authorities to compile a fascinating and nostalgic work. Each lighthouse featured is accompanied by interesting historical details as well as a selection of vintage postcard views with extended captions some over a century old.

Remote British Lighthouses in Vintage Postcards

Postcards from the Edge

Christopher P. Nicholson

Ten years into South African Democracy we need to find answers to some hard questions. Did the negotiations that lead to the new South Africa include an agreement that some of the masterminds of murder would be immune from prosecution? Have these men refused to confess their deed and shame in the certain knowledge that they will not be punished for their crimes? Will the families of Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli--as well as many others--ever know for certain who authorised the murders of their loved ones? This is the fascinating story of the search for the people ultimately responsible for the deaths of the Cradock Four. Based on factual documentation and court records, it recounts the investigations and political intrigue around the murders and it demonstrates how this notorious case, more than any other, exposed the inner workings of the apartheid government's State Security Council.

Christopher Nicholson

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