Being a successful author doesn't always mean you can spend all of your time penning winning tales. It also requires a hefty amount of time on the road and airplane journeys to visit book festivals. Not that David Nicholls minds.The British bestselling author of One Day was back in the UAE earlier in the year as part of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature to discuss his latest novel Us.
It is a bittersweet romantic tale that follows a hapless husband who attempts to save his marriage by taking his wife on a European adventure. Nicholls says the novel was partly inspired by his own travels and he hopes it goes some way to puncturing some of the myths surrounding travelling.
"It doesn't necessarily breed romance," he says. "There is this idea that all you need is that trip to Paris or Rome, but what you really get with travel is novelty; the chance to see the familiar in an unfamiliar setting, so you can have new things to talk about. Another example is that you sleep in a new bed in the hope of rediscovering each other. Us is actually about how fraught the travelling experience can be and how it doesn't necessarily fulfil our hopes in the ways we expect."
How often do you go on holiday?
I have a family now so it depends on school holidays. We normally do three or four proper holidays a year. During the Easter break we go walking in the English countryside, usually in the rain. In May, we travel to a destination where we can swim in the sea – places like Corsica or Sicily. In July, we avoid the beaches and visit the mountains and try to swim in the rivers of France or Italy, and in the autumn we go walking in the rain again.
Where do you call home?
Highbury in North London. It is near the Emirates – the stadium of Arsenal, the football club. I have lived in tougher urban neighbourhoods, but this is quite family-friendly. It has a suburban feel and I love it.
Where do you plan to go next?
We are going to the east of Sicily near Noto and Syracuse. The choice of destinations to visit is a joint decision by the family, but I do the planning.
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What do you love about travelling?
I travel a lot in Europe and I love cities. I enjoy the process of exploration, of getting lost and finding new neighbourhoods. These are things we sometimes take for granted because it is getting harder to get lost now with GPS on phones and very detailed maps. I am also disastrous to go to cities with because I am very methodical. I like to cover the territory and I go north, south, east and west and can walk for 10 to 12 hours a day. I am obsessive about walking in cities and my family isn’t. This is why I like to be by myself when I am in cities – so I can keep walking.
What do you hate about travelling?
I don’t like anything that is too regimented and controlled. I don’t like crowds and the kind of Italian beach resorts with all those sunbeds placed in a row – that to me is absolute misery.
Do you prefer simplicity or luxury?
Simplicity because luxury makes me anxious. If someone comes along and cleans my sunglasses and tops up my drink I hate it because it makes me feel embarrassed and awkward. I would much rather be in a simple house in the middle of the countryside than a luxury hotel.
Do you like to travel light?
Very light. I am obsessive about hand luggage only because I feel that all I need is the right number of clothes and my laptop. I am not saying I wear the same clothes all the time, but there is no need for too much, unless you are travelling with children.
What has been your favourite trip?
Visiting Venice out of season, in the winter. I love exploring the edges of the city and the small quiet corners. It is unbelievably beautiful and sad at the same time.
What is your idea of a perfect weekend?
A walk in the English countryside in a place like the Yorkshire Dales. To spend two or three days just walking and eating is bliss for me. I walk with headphones on and listen to stories. I have been writing film adaptations, and recently I wrote the screenplay for Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. I listened to that on a long walk from the Yorkshire Dales to the Lake District over three to four days and that was great because I could really concentrate and take it in. The idea of walking is very appealing to writers as it gives you solitude and the chance to think things through.
What is your ideal romantic destination?
I love Lisbon; it is a really beautiful city. It is just on the edge of being discovered and being overrun by tourists, but at the moment it is just really romantic and picturesque and is a great walking city.
This is the second time you have come to the UAE to promote your work. What do you make of your experiences so far?
I find it fascinating because it is the farthest east I have ever been. I have never been to India or the Far East at all and this is also my first and only experience of the Arab world. You do hear a lot of stereotypes about conservatism and actually I am not particularly aware of them. I have never felt restricted here and it is great for me as a writer to have this experience and get these insights. What is also exciting about this place, is that there is a great hunger for culture, literature and books. I am less interested in the shopping and resorts, and more keen to meet people.
Us by David Nicholls is out now. For more information, visit www.davidnichollswriter.com
