Nick Harkaway was born in Cornwall in 1972, which is actually a really amazing thing to happen to anyone, although, alas, it was a relatively lousy year for wine.
Since it’s utterly pointless to be coy about it, let’s stipulate that he is the fourth son of novelist John le Carré, and move on.
He studied philosophy, sociology, and politics at Clare College, Cambridge, and then worked in the film industry. The thing about the film industry, from Nick’s point of view, is that it’s a nice place to visit, but living there is like choosing root canal work over a skiing holiday.
In order to support his his meteoric climb to the very lowest ranks of the cinematic world, he also wrote:
- website text for a designer boutique selling glamorous lingerie
- post-dated cheques
- and brochure copy for a company in Switzerland making modular bottle-capping machinery. This was the most interesting, because you don’t really think about it a lot, but of course advances in bottle-capping technology mean that a conventional solid plant format entails a huge outlay in… no, actually, scratch that. Modular bottle-capping is duller than grey and white sand.
He has trained in fencing, aikido, jujitsu, and kickboxing, and is notably bad at all of them. On one occasion he successfully knocked someone down during a sparring session, and (being English) instinctively lent over the help them up. His memories of what followed are confused, but video footage shows him apparently attempting to swallow his opponent’s foot, then flying through the air like a ballistic jelly.
One of the saddest things he has ever seen is a mortally injured muppet.
He is mildly obsessed with bizarre trivia, including random geographical facts about Micronesia, the life of Johann Joachim Becher, and Colony Collapse Disorder in bees.
He lives in London with his wife, Clare, who is extremely patient, gorgeous, and runs a human rights charity called Reprieve.
The Gone-Away World is his first novel. It’s rather good. The pleasing (if odd) thing about it is the variety of people who enjoy it. You should almost certainly buy it and find out why.