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Mr Nicholas is a devastating study of the domestic horrors of English suburbia, personified by the Nicholas family and its snobbish patriarch, a petty tyrant whose greatest pleasure is to sip gin while bullying and arguing with his beleaguered wife and three sons, ‘intellectual, ineffectual’ Peter, rebellious Owen, and young David, whose relationship with a retired Army captain threatens to bring scandal on the family. With wry humour and surgically precise prose, Thomas Hinde paints an unforgettable portrait of an everyday monster, a character who is contemptible, yet curiously sympathetic. Thomas Hinde (1926-2014) burst onto the literary scene at age 26 with his first novel, Mr Nicholas (1952), which was widely acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic and hailed as one of the finest English novels of its day. This new edition, the first in over 35 years, includes a new introduction by Alice Ferrebe and a reproduction of the original jacket art by Peter Curl. Hinde’s classic thriller of suburban paranoia, The Day the Call Came (1964), is also available from Valancourt.
Savage, brilliant. - New York Times
An expert novel. His storytelling is done in meticulously understated style, but beneath its bland surface, Mr Nicholas is relentless in its exploration of a quiet, homey little English hell. - Time Magazine
A brilliant and beautifully written book, controlled, exact and illuminating … one of the few really distinguished post-war novels. - Kenneth Allsop
A wonderful novel, full of passion but written subtly with humour, sympathy and restraint … Mr Nicholas himself is a brilliant portrayal of a fascinating monster. - Financial Times
