Adam Nicolson

Last updated


The Lord Carnock

Born (1957-09-12) 12 September 1957 (age 67)
Bransgore, England
OccupationWriter
Alma mater Magdalene College, Cambridge
Period1981 to present
GenreHistory, memoir, nature, place
SpouseOlivia Fane (divorced)
(m. 1992)
Children5
Relatives Nigel Nicolson (father)
Philippa née Tennyson-d'Eyncourt (mother)
Vita Sackville-West (grandmother)
Juliet Nicolson (sister)

Adam Nicolson, FSA , FSA Scot , FRSL (born 12 September 1957) is an English author who has written about history, landscape, great literature and the sea. He is also the 5th Baron Carnock, but does not use the title.

Contents

Biography

Adam Nicolson is the son of writer Nigel Nicolson and his wife Philippa Tennyson-d'Eyncourt. He is the grandson of the writers Vita Sackville-West and Sir Harold Nicolson, and great-grandson of Sir Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt and Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock. He was educated at Eaton House, Summer Fields School, [1] Eton College where he was a King's Scholar, and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He has worked as a journalist and columnist on the Sunday Times, the Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Telegraph, National Geographic Magazine and Granta, where he is a contributing editor. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Society of Antiquaries and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

He is noted for his books Sea Room (about the Shiant Isles, a group of uninhabited islands in the Hebrides); [2] God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible ; [3] The Mighty Dead (US title:Why Homer Matters) exploring the epic Greek poems; [4] The Seabird's Cry about the disaster afflicting the world's seabirds; [5] The Making of Poetry on the Romantic Revolution in England in the 1790s; [6] and Life Between the Tides, a boundary-crossing account of the tides in human and animal life. [7]

He has made several television series (with Keo Films) and radio series (with Tim Dee, the writer and radio producer) on a variety of subjects including the King James Bible, 17th-century literacy, Crete, Homer, the idea of Arcadia, the untold story of Britain's 20th-century whalers and the future of Atlantic seabirds.

Between 2005 and 2009, in partnership with the National Trust, Nicolson led a project which transformed the 260 acres (110 ha) surrounding the house and garden at Sissinghurst into a productive mixed farm, growing meat, fruit, cereals and vegetables for the National Trust restaurant. [8] And between 2012 and 2017, together with the RSPB, the EU and SNH, Nicolson and his son Tom were partners in a project to eradicate invasive predators from the Shiant Isles, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. In March 2018, the islands were declared rat-free. [9]

In December 2008 he succeeded his cousin David Nicolson, 4th Baron Carnock, as 5th Baron Carnock. [4]

Personal life

Nicolson met his first wife, the writer Olivia Fane, when he was a student at Cambridge University. They married in 1982, had three sons, and later divorced.

He is married to the writer and gardener Sarah Raven, with whom he has two daughters: Rosie and Molly. [10] The family lives at Perch Hill Farm [11] in Sussex.

Awards and recognition

Books

Television

Radio

References

  1. Adam Nicolson. Prepared for Anything. The Times Magazine, 25 June 1994. pages 24–30.
  2. "SEA ROOM: AN ISLAND LIFE IN THE HEBRIDES". Kirkus Reviews. 24 June 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2025.
  3. Donaldson, Savanna (16 February 2024). "A Book Review of God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible". Inside Out. Retrieved 7 April 2025.
  4. 1 2 Worrall, Simon (3 January 2015). "Author Says a Whole Culture—Not a Single 'Homer'—Wrote 'Iliad,' 'Odyssey'". National Geographic. Retrieved 7 April 2025.
  5. East, Ben (25 June 2017). "The Seabird's Cry by Adam Nicolson review – gritty, poetic and soaring". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 April 2025.
  6. Hren, Joshua (11 December 2022). "A Communion of Pathless Solitudes: On Adam Nicolson's 'The Making of Poetry'". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 7 April 2025.
  7. Irmscher, Christoph (17 February 2022). "'Life Between the Tides' Review: Rings of Bright Water". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 7 April 2025.
  8. Sunday Times, 8 February 2009 [ dead link ]
  9. BBC: Shiant Islands in the Minch declared rat-free
  10. Carpenter, Louise (17 August 2024). "Sarah Raven: The National Trust's rigid rules didn't work for our chaotic family at Sissinghurst". The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 April 2025.
  11. Perch Hill Farm
  12. "Nicolson (Lord Carnock), Adam". Royal Society of Literature. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Baron Carnock
2008–present
Incumbent
Heir apparent:
Hon. Thomas Nicolson