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Nick McLoughlin

@nickmacwrites

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Reading, writing, running. Snow, surf, and tea.
📚Author of the novel Slings and Arrows, published by The Book Guild.

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I am very excited, and nervous, to announce that my debut novel Slings and Arrows will be published on the 28th March by The Book Guild.

You can pre-order a copy directly from the publisher (link in bio),
or @waterstones, @whsmithofficial, @bookshop_org_uk

📚 It’s January 1982, and Britain will soon be at war with Argentina. But that’s not why Terry’s life is falling apart. Recently redundant from the only job he’s had since school, he and his wife Pat are forced to sell their home and move into a static caravan.
The only chink of light is the unlikely success of the White Hart darts team, but then Terry’s son reveals some surprising news, and Terry makes a visit to the doctor that changes everything.

A funny and moving novel about love, family, friendship - and darts.

#bookstagram #books #debutauthor #writingcommunity #writer #bookish
#booksofinstagram #goodreads #newrelease #bookrecommendations #darts #Derby #bookish #debutnovel #dartsofinstagram #booklover #writersofinstagram by @nickmacwrites

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3 years ago

I’ve been on a bit of a biography/memoir binge recently, and these were all fantastic, but they are all about dead white men.

Any suggestions for ones about or by women? (Hermione Lee’s biography of Penelope Fitzgerald is already on my list, and I have a copy of Giving Up The Ghost by Hilary Mantel.)

Thoughts on these 4:

Ackroyd on Dickens - definitive biography of a genius. (Likely ADHD it seems to me) Exceptional.
Motion on Larkin - definitive biography of a repressed and depressed genius. Wonderful.
Hitch on Hitch - What a life! If only he were around today to eviscerate the buffoon in the White House and all who sail close to him.
Graves - beautiful, tragic. What a terrible waste of young life the First World War was - all that magnificent potential obliterated.

Highly recommend all 4. by @nickmacwrites

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13 days ago

The Fortnight in September and Greengates are two of my favourite novels, so, though the tone is very different, this one has been on my list for a while. 📚 Anyone read it?

#books #booksbooksbooks #penguinclassics #reading #bookstagram by @nickmacwrites

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a month ago

by @nickmacwrites

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2 months ago

It was a real pleasure to pop into @bearded_badger_books today in the fantastic new space that is @bustler_derby .

Massive thanks to Paul and his son who have curated a superb selection of books in a wonderful space, and whose unflinching support and enthusiasm for independent authors and publishing is so inspiring.

Pay a visit if you can. Buy a book, talk books, meet good book people 😊 📚 by @nickmacwrites

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2 months ago

I first read this in my early twenties, but, if anything, I enjoyed/appreciated it more this time round. I certainly understood it better.

Given what we know about Plath’s own life, and death, the second half of the book, in particular, is tragic and heartbreaking, but the first half is quite brilliant.

Largely autobiographical, and, according to her journal, influenced in style and tone, by The Catcher in the Rye, Plath’s account of Esther’s spiraling mental health is devastatingly blunt and matter-of-fact. But, as a novel, it is also entertaining and funny. And beautifully written.

Would The Bell Jar still be considered a classic of American Literature had the author not killed herself, and in such a way?
Yes. In the same way that ‘Catcher’ would without Salinger’s retreat from the world. If you’ve only read one, read the other. Neither? Read them both. 📚

#books #literature #reading #bookstagram #classic by @nickmacwrites

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2 months ago

The perfect summer read. ☀️ 📚

Set over a few dramatic weeks in the blistering July of 1900, the Go-Between is a coming-of-age novel, beautifully written.

It is a story of lost innocence amid the tragically destructive conventions of the English class system.

Written in the style of a memoir, the narrator Leo takes us back to the fateful summer when he turned 13, and his role as messenger in the events leading up to the ‘incident’ that changed the lives of all involved.

Ian McEwen cites it as the inspiration for his Booker shortlisted novel Atonement, John Boyne has said it is his favourite novel, and for Ayòbámi Adébáyò it is the book that made her want to be a writer.

If you like novels such as A Month in the Country, One Fine Day, Brideshead Revisited, or The Remains of the Day, then The Go-Between will be right up your street.

I loved it ❤️ 📚.

#books #literature #summerreads #reader #classic by @nickmacwrites

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2 months ago

What did people make of this?

I mean, I finished it - it is very short, mercifully - but I just found it dull. And repetitive, with lots, and lots of lists: equipment, countries, geographical features, colours, food, mundane tasks .. But also, It read like it was written by, or for, someone who had never travelled. Or one who had never contemplated how immense and wonderful the universe is, and how small and insignificant their place in it. Like this was some kind of revelatory new discovery, and wasn’t the author just a genius for pointing this all out to the hapless reader.

And it’s not a novel. At least, it has no plot and doesn’t go anywhere (apart from round and round obviously). And the characters are flat stereotypes who have nothing, and I mean nothing, of interest to say, in spite of the unique circumstances in which they find themselves and the perfunctory issues at home (dying mother, marriage breakdown etc) with which the author has saddled each of them.

This book is a dud. IMHO. Booker prize judges be damned.

#booker #books #literature #booksbooksbooks #reading by @nickmacwrites

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3 months ago

So proud ❤️

1st pic: Graduation Day, Aberystwyth, Wales.
2nd pic: First day of school, Aime, France. by @nickmacwrites

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3 months ago

Rachel Cusk is a genius - stone cold. And this book is utterly incredible. But if you haven’t read anything of hers I would suggest starting elsewhere, probably Outline. Then you’ll be in and you’ll want to read more.

But, as I said, Parade is incredible. It’s just that it’s more of a series of linked episodes that draw you into thinking about what it is to be human and how we must live in relationship with others. Almost not a novel in the accepted sense of plot, character, narrative drive etc.

Ultimately, I can see how some readers might really not get on with this book. And perhaps Cusk will eventually write herself into a corner with this type of philosophical enquiry in fiction (though I doubt it), but if you’re looking for a more experimental ideas based novel, then you’ll like it. I did.

#literature #books #booksbooksbooks #reader #writer by @nickmacwrites

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4 months ago

Gobbledegook. Alan Garner was in his mid-eighties when he wrote this novel and, honestly, I wonder if he was suffering from some form of dementia. None of it makes any sense.

There’s a boy, seemingly alone in an old house, visited by some kind of rag and bone man, (who may or may not actually exist) who offers the boy a cup and a donkey stone (🤷‍♂️)in exchange for an old pair of pajamas and a lamb’s shoulder bone.

There’s a thin, naked semi-human man who lives in a swamp, comic book characters who come out of the comics, back into which the boy sometimes follows them, and all manner of other similiarly inexplicable tomfoolery.

At one stage the boy pleads with the rag and bone man ‘can you not talk sense?’ I felt the same for 152 pages.

Apparently it’s about the nature of time. It was on the Booker Prize short list in 2022. And a reviewer in the Guardian enthused that ‘it is the book of a lifetime’ where ‘myth meets modern science in a masterwork brimming with ideas and imagination.’

So it’s obviously me.

However, if you want a laugh, check out some of the reviews on Goodreads. They’re far more entertaining than this novel. by @nickmacwrites

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5 months ago

GOAT 🐐 Happy 100th Birthday 🎂 by @nickmacwrites

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5 months ago