A letter to David Nicholls from Jane

Dear Mr Nicholls

The weather's so beautiful today dare I say it feels like Spring is taking steps towards Summer. Thinking of Halcyon Summer days is what compelled me to write to you.

Firstly I'd like to thank you for allowing me into the mind of your sixteen year old character. Charlie, on the cusp of adulthood whose journey you have captured so perfectly in your novel Sweet Sorrow.

Charlie is a complex person with the outer persona of someone who will fail. School has finished and aimlessness pervades his Life. He roams the countryside escaping home, his questioning family, and the daily encounters he finds too challenging. It's here in the fields that he meets Fran, his own age, wearing a halo of future success. Ensnared by her confidence and beauty he joins her and a group of dreaming thespians in their quest to produce an annual Shakespearian play, Romeo and Juliet. He begins to live two lives but keeps them well apart. The class divide is ever present until one day the two simultaneously collide into one another.

Your writing is psychologically intense, at times amusing, and often achingly sad. Charlie is a fast-flowing river turbulently tumbling over rocks 'til he finally meets his 'sea'. Your dialogue and insight into first love is quite outstanding.

My second thank you comes from you endearingly infusing within the novel lines from Romeo and Juliet. It made me scurry through my bookshelves searching for the edition of The Complete Works of Shakespeare which I received for my twenty first birthday. Apart from The Taming of the Shrew which I do sometimes re-read I haven't read a Shakespeare's play for years. Now that's all changed and I have. Why didn't I do this earlier? Perhaps I was waiting for Charlie to take me by the hand.

Once again thank you for writing this compelling love story. With kindest regards.

Sincerely

Jane

David Nicholls has written five novels. Trained as an actor he's now a full time novelist and screenplay writer. The recipient of various awards including a BAFTA.

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