Historical reimaginings have inspired a whole host of new novels in recent years with everything from Hilary Mantel’s portrait of Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall and Bring Up Your Bodies to Seth Grahame-Smith’s horror twist, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The latest in this vain is Christopher Nicholson’s Winter, which looks back on Thomas Hardy and his burgeoning relationship with the actress, Gertrude Bugler, chosen by him to take the leading role in the first theatrical adaptation of Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented.
The hardback release date has been confirmed as the 16th January 2014, as we all get set for the ongoing winter months of the 2014 New Year. It’s Nicholson’s 3rd novel although his debut, The Fattest Man in America, only came in 2005 when he was 49 years old making him a bit of a latecomer to literature having spent most of his life as a radio scriptwriter and producer for the likes of the BBC World Service.
Winter is the imagined retelling of the events of a winter in Thomas Hardy’s later years during the 1920s in which he was visited by the young actress who had been chosen by him for the lead role in the first adaptation of Tess of the d’Urbervilles. The ageing writer’s country home becomes the stage for the story of his reflections on change and death, his firm embrace on life and the jealousy of his wife as a result of his newfound friend, Gertrude.
While the story is a work of fiction, it’s also based on the real life events that took place in the run up to the production of Tess, following Thomas Hardy’s completion of the script in 1924, so for fans of the writer it’ll be a significant release. His wife, Florence, took exception to the young actress who had seemingly pierced her life as she struggled with sickness, insecurity, and anxiety.
The book is set in the winter of 1924/25 as Hardy, aged 84, rocked the boat of his marriage to his much younger wife Florence, aged 45, by seemingly becoming infatuated with local actress Gertrude Bugler. Bugler was apparently the granddaughter of Hardy’s original muse for Tess, which becomes more significant when you take into account his earlier novella, The Well-Beloved, which centres around the story of a man who falls for a woman, only to go on to fall in love with her daughter, and then her grand-daughter, so there was some reason behind Florence’s insecurity.
The Winter hardback release follows Christopher Nicholson’s previous two novels, The Fattest Man in America (2005) and The Elephant Keeper (2009). With a previous shortlisting for the Costa Noval Award for The Elephant Keeper, his latest novel could be an early shout for a few literature prize nominations in 2014. Don’t expect a detailed historical recreation though as Nicholson has adopted a sizeable amount of creative license in the story, narrative and construction of Winter.
