I mentioned Nigel Jay yesterday. He was a regular on North West television screens for a number of years, reading the regional news. Now he has what seems like an idyllic lifestyle, taking the narrow boat on which he lives around the canals of Cheshire, and marketing his first novel.
(Narrow it may be, by the way, but it's also a long boat - no less than 70 feet in length, and Nigel explained that, although it suits the Cheshire canal system, it's too long for the locks in Yorkshire.)
Nigel had timed his arrival in Lymm to coincide with the Festival, and he and his partner Denise (pictured with Nigel) offered my wife and me coffee as we chatted on the canal bank about the ups and downs of the life of an author. He has set up his own publishing business, Joint Impressions, and their first title is his debut – And No Wings.
This is a chunky book – almost 700 pages – and it’s a story about the extremely topical subject of climate change. No murders in it, as far as I know, but I hope that Nigel’s entrepreneurialism is rewarded with good sales.
