Christopher Robin Nicole (born 7 December 1930) is a prolific British writer of over 200 novels and non-fiction books since 1957. He has written as Christopher Nicole and also under several pseudonyms including Peter Grange, Andrew York, Robin Cade, Mark Logan, Christina Nicholson, Alison York, Leslie Arlen, Robin Nicholson, C.R. Nicholson, Daniel Adams, Simon McKay, Caroline Gray and Alan Savage. He also wrote under the pen name

Max Marlow Max Marlow is the pen name of married British writing team Christopher Nicole and Diana Bachmann. They wrote 11 thriller novels from 1988 to 1998. They live in Guernsey, Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: ...

when co-authoring with his wife, fellow author

Diana Bachmann Diana Bachmann (b. 1940s) is a British writer of 6 historical novels from 1985 to 1998. She also wrote 11 thriller novels under the pen name Max Marlow in collaboration with her husband, prolific writer Christopher Nicole. They lived in Guernsey, ...

Biography

Personal life

Christopher Robin Nicole was born on 7 December 1930 in Georgetown, in

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

(now

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

), where he was raised. He is the son of Jean Dorothy (Logan) and Jack Nicole, a police officer. Both his parents were

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

. He studied at Queen's College in Guyana and at Harrison College in Barbados. He was a fellow at the Canadian Bankers Association and a clerk for the

Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; french: Banque royale du Canada) is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 17 million clients and has more than 89,000& ...

in Georgetown and

Nassau Nassau may refer to: Places Bahamas *Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence Canada *Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792 *Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...

from 1947 to 1956. In 1957, he moved to

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

, Channel Islands, where he currently lives, but he also has a domicile in Spain. On 31 March 1951, Nicole married his first wife, Jean Regina Amelia Barnett, with whom he had two sons, Bruce and Jack, and two daughters, Julie and Ursula, before they divorced. On 8 May 1982 Nicole married for the second time with fellow writer

Writing career

Nicole was first published in 1957, when he wrote a book about

West Indian Cricket In the sport of cricket, the West Indies is a sporting confederation of fifteen mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries and territories, many of which historically formed the British West Indies. It consists of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, B ...

. He published his first novel in 1959, his first stories being set in his native Caribbean. Later he wrote many historical novels, set in tumultuous periods such as World War I, World War II and the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, and depicting places in Europe, Asia and Africa. He also wrote classic romance novels. He signs most of his books as Christopher Nicole, but also uses several pseudonyms, some of them female. Pseudonyms used include: Peter Grange, Andrew York, Robin Cade, Mark Logan, Christina Nicholson, Alison York, Leslie Arlen, Robin Nicholson, C.R. Nicholson, Daniel Adams, Simon McKay, Caroline Gray, Alan Savage and Nicholas Grant. He wrote disaster thrillers in collaboration with his wife, Diana Bachmann, under the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Max Marlow. Under his different pseudonyms he has worked with many publishing houses:

Jarrolds The Jarrold Group is a Norwich–based company, founded as ''Jarrold & Sons Ltd'', in 1770, by John Jarrold, at Woodbridge, Suffolk, before relocating to Norfolk in 1823. ''The Jarrold Group'' still involves members of the Jarrold family. Fami ...

, Hutchinson, Simon & Schuster,

Coward-McCann & Geoghegan G. P. Putnam's Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group. History The company began as Wiley & Putnam with the 1838 partnership between George Palmer Putnam and J ...

, Jove, Michael Joseph, Mills & Boon, and Severn House. He specialized in series and sagas, and continues to write in the 21st century.

Bibliography

References and sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicole, Christopher 1930 births 20th-century British novelists 21st-century British novelists British male novelists British thriller writers British spy fiction writers British romantic fiction writers Guernsey writers Living people People from Georgetown, Guyana 20th-century British male writers 21st-century British male writers People educated at Harrison College (Barbados) 20th-century pseudonymous writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers