‘Books belong to the time you write them—there’s nothing you can do about that’

David Nicholls is as enthusiastic as ever the day I meet him on a grey Monday afternoon in a pub nestled in the Inns of Court, though his hoarse voice reveals the extent of his nine-month publicity campaign for You Are Here (Sceptre).

His sixth novel, it is also his biggest-selling hardback release ever: shifting 93,000 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan records—nearly three times as many as his previous book Sweet Sorrow in 2019. This year is his biggest year of sales ever. Readers and critics alike have been captivated by the story of geography teacher Michael and freelance editor Marnie connecting on a spellbinding-cum-treacherous walk across northern England.

Earlier this year there was also the successful Netflix adaptation of One Day (Hodder & Stoughton), for which Nicholls wrote the screenplay. Touted by the BBC as “note-perfect”, the series boosted the 2009 novel from selling 2,000-odd copies to around 155,000 year-on-year, accompanied by a halo effect across his other four paperbacks (Starter for Ten, The Understudy, Us and Sweet Sorrow, all published by Hodder & Stoughton). No wonder David Shelley, Hachette’s chief executive, recently hailed 2024 as “the year of David Nicholls”.

Of course, Nicholls is as self-effacing as ever. Twenty-one years since his début, why has You Are Here resonated so powerfully with readers? “I’ve been wondering that myself,” he says thoughtfully. “The timing and how it dealt with loneliness, that’s all been on our minds since lockdown. The first draft was much more of a lockdown book… so even though we cut back on that a lot it’s still woven into the novel. Something about the tone of the novel, it’s the warmest thing I’ve written, gentle… People always say my work is so warm and gentle, I always think they’re really dark and tough [laughs] and angsty, but I recognise there’s an optimism to it.”

Like Us or One Day, Nicholls again embraced the “security of the framework” in You Are Here, this time exploring the stages of a relationship while the characters navigate the terrain of Wainwright’s coastal walk. But while he “wanted it to be a very short novel and to be 60,000 words, it stretched to 80,000… One Day was 130,000”. Following the nine months of writing the first draft, Nicholls says: “It was very thoroughly edited by me, sentence by sentence. Because it was shorter, I was concentrating harder and working line by line and enjoying that way of working.”

The 58-year old is an exhaustive editor of his own work, typing out the second draft all over again while encompassing the editorial notes. He worked intensively with his new editor, Sceptre executive publisher Federico Andornino, after moving across to the more literary imprint from the main Hodder & Stoughton list, after his previous editor Nick Sayers retired. Nicholls would visit the Hachette offices each day as he and Andornino went through the manuscript line-by-line, workshopping the second half of the novel intensively, in particular the many possible endings for Marnie and Michael.

Nicholls says his new editor helped by making sure “there wasn’t too much geography, that things happened, that the book was eventful and that the ending worked”.

Andornino tells The Bookseller separately that while he was initially “apprehensive—as you normally are when you have to work with an author who is so phenomenally successful” it became the “best editorial experience I’ve had in my career”. Curtis Brown c.e.o. Jonny Geller also praises his long-time client’s work ethic, telling The Bookseller: “His screenwriting brain helps enormously with his editorial abilities and his understanding of the importance of many drafts.”

As well as the editing process, Nicholls is grateful to his publisher for its steadfastness in the early years. The interview takes place days after the Frankfurt Book Fair and Nicholls recognises how there is more pressure for débuts now to be an instant hit. “As someone who’s on their sixth novel and had their ups and downs, I’m aware of how privileged and lucky I have been, and what a shock it can be for début writers—all the reality of that world, and that new voice and when the book doesn’t quite take off, it’s a shock.

People always say my work is so warm and gentle, I always think they’re really dark and tough and angsty, but I recognise there’s an optimism to it

“I’m lucky I had this other job as a screenwriter, also lucky to have a publisher who can ride out the ups and downs. The Understudy [published in 2005] didn’t do very well but they were prepared to stick with me and then obviously One Day did very well, so I am concerned for those who don’t find their way until their third novel, which might be the one where they find their voice and readers discover them. I feel for new voices and recognise I’ve been lucky to have been supported through the ups and downs of my career.”

Continues…