AUTHOR PROFILE
NICK ALEXANDER
The author tells Margaret James how life’s quirks inspire him to write his bestselling novels
How does anyone become a million-selling novelist?
By getting one of those elusive lucky breaks, by writing the right novel at the right time, by already being famous?
Or, as the novelist Nick Alexander did, by putting in years of hard graft and never losing hope?
‘Before my writing career took off with my sixth novel The Case of the Missing Boyfriend, I had to rent out my own apartment to holidaymakers, live in a tiny, freezing cabin in the Swiss Alps, and borrow money from friends because I was too broke to pay my bills,’ he says. ‘I couldn’t fix my ancient (and horrifically dangerous) car, buy decent food for my cats, and for many years I felt as if I was just pretending to be a writer.
‘So my heart goes out to anyone who knows that feeling, because it was only after six or seven bestsellers that I finally started to feel validated as an author, and losing that gnawing sensation of insecurity was definitely a relief.
‘My first-ever novel was 50 Reasons to Say Goodbye. It started out as a form of therapy. I was going through dating hell, meeting men with ever stranger quirks and ever more unpalatable psychological issues. These quirks and issues became so surprising and shocking that when I wasn’t feeling actual despair, I found the situations absurdly funny.