Geoff Nicholson

A cultural commentator and author of such works as Sex Collectors and The Food Chain evaluates walking from a range of disciplines to consider how the activity has inspired sporting events, mystical revelations, and artistic legacies. 17,500 first printing.

The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism

The Lost Art of Walking

Mick is on his way to the Smoke from the provinces. He's got six guys to find with only their names to go on and no more help than the phone book and an A-Z. Stuart is determined to walk each of the capital's roads, streets and alleyways. But what will he do when there's nothing left of his A-Z but blacked out pages? Judy is set on creating her own unique map of each of the metropolis' boroughs...an A-Z of sex in the city.

Bleeding London

The author of "Bleeding London" and "Sex Collectors" turns his eye to the intellectual and cultural history of that most common of activities--walking. This fascinating rumination by a skilled cultural commentator analyzes the hows, wheres, and whys of walking through the ages.

The History, Science, Philosophy, Literature, Theory and Practice of Pedestrianism

A cartography-obsessed misfit clerk, an answer-seeking woman and a petty criminal father are bound together in the criminal underworld by a group of mysterious tattooed women. 15,000 first printing.

A Novel

The City Under the Skin

The History, Science, and Literature of Pedestrianism

Rock Guitar in the 1990s

Big Noises

Steve Geddes is an author who has been commissioned to write a book about collectors. His research leads him to an extraordinary line-up of eccentrics, including the alluring Victoria, who collects lovers. But then the most curious encyclopaedia he¿s ever seen draws his attention to a novelist it doesn¿t much rate, and suddenly he¿s eating, sleeping and breathing the works of Thornton McCain. Before he knows it, Steve finds he¿s become a collector himself: he can¿t rest until he¿s located every book, read every sentence. He should get a life, he knows, but his collector¿s quest is taking him into the very depths of the acquisitive inferno.

Hunters and Gatherers

From the Publisher: A fascinating, definitive, and very personal rumination on the history, science, philosophy, art, and literature of walking, by a skilled cultural commentator. Geoff Nicholson, author of Bleeding London and Sex Collectors, turns his eye to the intellectual and cultural history of that most common of activities-walking. This simple, omnipresent activity has inspired numerous subcultures, literary and artistic legacies, sporting events, personal memories, epic journeys, mystical revelations, and scandals. It's a rich tradition that embraces such novelists as Charles Dickens and Paul Auster, musicians like Robert Johnson and Bob Dylan, and moviemakers from Buster Keaton to Werner Herzog. But it's also a tradition that includes obsessives and eccentrics, such as the artist Mudman, who coats his body in mud and then walks the city streets; competitive pedestrians such as Captain Barclay, who walked one mile an hour for a thousand successive hours; and gang members who use the hidden language of the "Crip Walk" to spell out messages in the dirt with their scuffing. How we walk, where we walk, why we walk announces who and what we are. Geoff Nicholson is a master chronicler of the hidden subversive twists on a seemingly normal activity. He analyzes the hows, wheres, and whys of walking through the ages. He finds people who walk only at night, or naked, or for thousands of miles at a time, in costume, for causes, or for no reason whatsoever. Here, he brings curiosity and genuine insight to a subject that often walks right past us.

Brilliant but unattractive Gregory Colins meets handsome classmate Mike Smith at a book burning party, and when Gregory's book is accepted for publication, he convinces Mike to take his place on the book jacket, a deception that plunges Mike into the spot

Bedlam Burning

Geoff Nicholson, the reigning master of obsessive black literary humor, brings us his riskiest novel yet, delving into the erotic world of a foot fetishist. Nicholson's unnamed narrator is a serious man with a full life. He reads newspapers, follows polit

Footsucker

The author of The City Under the Skin maps out “a delightful fiction, and a wonderfully exasperated love letter to a great city” (Kirkus Reviews). Like any international metropolis, London draws the most diverse characters to its bustling streets. Meet Mick. He’s on his way to the smoke from the provinces. He’s got six guys to find with only their names to go on, a lust for vengeance, and a city guide. Meet Stuart. Determined to walk each of the capital’s roads, streets, and alleyways, he’s a man on a mission . . . but has no plan for when there’s nowhere left to go. Meet Judy. She’s determined to leave her mark on London—one lover at a time—creating a virtual A–Z of sex in the city. “A book whose setting becomes as much a character as the people who pepper its pages, Bleeding London is dark, droll, and suspenseful.” —Library Journal “As packed with strange characters and comic and menacing incidents and characters as any night-bus . . . Nicholson obviously boasts a rich and arcane knowledge of the city and exploits it to the full.” —The Times (London) “Nicholson’s Bleeding London is a dark, frayed and filthy place . . . filled with weird sex, arbitrary violence and obscure threat . . . He produces comic lines when you least expect them, making you laugh out loud.” —New Statesman “An ambitious, clever and witty novel which attacks its subject with verve and humor.” —Literary Review

Throughout the land VW Beetles are spontaneously combusting. Nazi skinheads are cruising the streets and a millionaire tycoon and a weather girl have been kidnapped. It falls to Barry Osgathorpe to discover who is responsible.

Still Life with Volkswagens

How we walk, where we walk, why we walk tells the world who and what we are. Whether it's once a day to the car, or for long weekend hikes, or as competition, or as art, walking is a profoundly universal aspect of what makes us humans, social creatures, and engaged with the world. Cultural commentator, Whitbread Prize winner, and author of Sex Collectors Geoff Nicholson offers his fascinating, definitive, and personal ruminations on the literature, science, philosophy, art, and history of walking. Nicholson finds people who walk only at night, or naked, or in the shape of a cross or a circle, or for thousands of miles at a time, in costume, for causes, or for no reason whatsoever. He examines the history and traditions of walking and its role as inspiration to artists, musicians, and writers like Bob Dylan, Charles Dickens, and Buster Keaton. In The Lost Art of Walking, he brings curiosity, imagination, and genuine insight to a subject that often strides, shuffles, struts, or lopes right by us.

Le estremità dell'amore

A cartographic thriller with so many twists and turns it requires its own map A cartography-obsessed misfit clerk from an antique map store in a district that's not quite trendy yet. A bold young woman chasing the answer to a question she can't quite formulate. A petty criminal hoping the parking lot he's just purchased is the ticket to a new life of respectability with his school-age daughter. A ruthless but vulnerable killer and his disgruntled accomplice. In The City Under the Skin, it's not fate that will bind these characters together but something more concrete and sinister: the appearance of a group of mysterious women, their backs crudely and extensively tattooed with maps. They have been kidnapped, marked, and released, otherwise unharmed. When one turns up on the doorstep of the map shop and abruptly bares her back, only to be hustled away by a man in a beat-up blue Cadillac, it's the misfit clerk Zak, pushed by his curious new friend Marilyn, who finds himself reluctantly entering a criminal underworld whose existence he'd prefer to ignore. In this haunting literary thriller, Geoff Nicholson paints a deft portrait of a city in transition. His sharply drawn characters are people desperate to know where they are but scared of being truly seen. A meditation on obsession and revenge, a hymn to the joys of urban exploration, The City Under the Skin is a wholly original novel about the indelible scars we both live with and inflict on others.

From the critically acclaimed author of The Food Chain and Footsucker comes a sophisticated comedy about three people caught in the Hollywood machine. Following the death of his wife, Henry Cadwallader, an English doctor, insists on accompanying his aspiring actress daughter, Dorothy, on a trip to Hollywood. He fears she will fall prey to corruption and sleaze, but finds that it is actually he who is being corrupted at every turn. On the flight to LA, they meet 'auteur of the future' Rick McCartney. Rick's trying to get the backing to make a costume drama set in seventeenth-century England about a man who owns what he fears is the last dodo on earth. Dorothy Cadwallader's quest for fame begins badly and goes downhill from there. Meanwhile Henry becomes involved with a former actress turned estate agent. The lives of Henry and Dorothy once again intersect with that of Rick McCartney to dramatic effect as the characters find themselves drawn to the brink, where dreams die and extinction threatens. Sharp humor and keen observation drive Geoff Nicholson's satisfyingly oblique look at America's obsession with stardom.

The Hollywood Dodo

A comedy of human behaviour and philosophical debate.

What We Did on Our Holidays

While at one of Dr. John Bentley's notorious book burning parties, Gregory Collins, brilliant but unattractive, encounters Mike Smith, a gorgeous classmate, and when Gregory's book is accepted for publication, he convinces Mike to take his place on the book jacket, a deception that plunges Mike into the spotlight of literary success. Reprint.

A Knot Garden

Barry Osgathorpe, known in the seventies as Ishmael the Zen Road Warrior, has decided to hole up for the nineties. A person can't even drive his Volkswagen Beetle with a clear conscience any more, for fear of polluting the environment. Yet, powerful forces are converging that will get him on the road again. When Barry learns that Volkswagens are being blown up all over the country, that a gang of skinheads is cruising the streets in a fleet of customized Beetles, and that his ex-girlfriend's deranged, Volkswagen-obsessed father and her current VW-collecting boyfriend are missing, he knows it's time to put the pedal to the metal.

Geoff Nicholson

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