Nicholas Evans was born on 26 July 1950. He is an English journalist, screenwriter television and film producer and novelist. Evans was born at in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, and educated at Bromsgrove School, but before studying at Oxford University, he served in Africa with the charity Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). He then studied journalism and worked as a newspaper reporter and television screenwriter.
He lives in Devon and has a son called Max Evans and a daughter, Lauren. He also has another son Harry, from a relationship he had with Jane Hewland, the TV producer. Evans is now married to singer/songwriter Charlotte Gordon Cumming. Evans, Cumming, and several of their relatives were poisoned in September 2008 after consuming deadly webcap mushrooms that they gathered on holiday. The poisoning was non-fatal, though Evans and the others had to undergo kidney dialysis and he underwent a transplant in 2011 using a kidney donated by his daughter.
His novel, The Horse Whisperer sold 15 million copies and it is on the list of the best-selling books of all time. In the UK, The Horse Whisperer was listed on the BBC’s Big Read, a 2003 survey with the goal of finding the “nation’s best-loved book”. The book was made into a motion picture in 1998, with Robert Redford directing and starring in the film version opposite Kristin Scott Thomas, along with Scarlett Johansson and Sam Neill.
Evans, has agreed an option to make a movie of his third novel, The Smoke Jumper.
The Horse Whisperer (1995) After her daughter is injured in a horseback riding accident, a sophisticated New York woman desperately seeks the help of a Montana horse whisperer to help her daughter and the horse recover from the trauma.
The Smoke Jumper (2001) His name is Connor Ford and he falls like an angel of mercy from the sky, braving the flames to save the woman he loves but knows he cannot have. For Julia Bishop is the partner of his best friend and fellow “smoke jumper,” Ed Tully. Julia loves them both until a fiery tragedy on Montana’s Snake Mountain forces her to choose between them, and burns a brand on all their hearts.
The Brave (2010) The motto of the boarding school to which Tommy Bedford is dispatched is ‘Fortune Favours the Brave’. It’s 1959 and the school bristles with bullies and sadistic staff. Tommy, a quirky loner, obsessed with cowboys and Indians, needs all the bravery he can summon. Salvation comes when his glamorous actress sister is swept off to Hollywood by one of his heroes, TV cowboy Ray Montane. With the Cold War looming, the sinister side of Tinseltown seeps through and Tommy and Diane soon find themselves in jeopardy. Forty years on, Tommy has to confront his boyhood ghosts when his own son finds himself charged with murder.