Norman Nicholson

Life

Nicholson lived in 14 St George's Terrace, a Victorian terraced house and shop in the small industrial town of Millom on the edge of the Lake District, the son of Joseph Nicholson, a gentleman's outfitter, and his wife Edith Cornthwaite (died 1919). He lived in the same house for most of his life. Nicholson was educated at Holborn Hill School and Millom Secondary School, but his education was interrupted when he needed treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis aged 16, being away for two years in a Linford, Hampshire sanatorium. He was influenced by the social and religious community around the local Wesleyan Methodist chapel, to which belonged Rosetta Sobey, who became his stepmother in 1922. He was confirmed in 1940 into the Church of England.

He was married in 1956 to Yvonne Edith Gardner (died 1982), a teacher who had consulted him about a school production of his play The Old Man of the Mountains, and they began to travel extensively in Northern England, Scotland and Norway. They had no children.

His writing career stretched from the 1930s up until his death in 1987. He was published by T. S. Eliot at Faber and Faber. His works include Rock Face (1948) and the later Sea to the West (1981). He was elected to the Royal Society of Literature in 1945. He received altogether five honorary degrees from British universities, the Queen's Award for Poetry in 1977, and the OBE in 1981.

He died on 30 May 1987 in Whitehaven and is buried in St George's Churchyard, Millom.

Work

The work of Norman Nicholson is marked by the simplicity and directness of his language, which is drawn from the vernacular of the common people in his native town. Much of it concerns mining, quarrying and ironworks — the dominant industries in his area. Religion and faith were another aspect of his work. His poetry also abounds with direct quotations from everyday life, skilfully woven into the body of the poem. The opening of "Old Man at a Cricket Match" is typical:

One important trait in Nicholson's work is conscious adoption of provincialism coupled with a conscious rejection of the value judgements associated with it: "the smug, the narrow, the short-sighted... a bad copy of the life of the capital," as he called them. To him a provincial was one who lives in the place his parents, friends and relations live, where there is a shared culture, not "an enormous heterogeneous collection of people gathered from all corners of the country and deposited like silt at the delta of a great river." It is in a contained provincial community, "in our intense concern with what is close to us, that we most resemble the people of other countries and other times" and gain awareness of "that which is enduring in life and society."

Another important feature is Nicholson's Christianity. The religious poems in Five Rivers foreshadow verse plays of his – The Old Man of the Mountains (1946), A Match for the Devil (1955) and Birth by Drowning (1960) – placing the Bible in a distinctly Cumbrian setting. A fourth, Prophesy to the Wind (1947) is about survival after nuclear disaster.

As a poet Nicholson is not generally associated with any of the movements of the 20th century. Rather, like Charles Causley, he seems to be considered more of an isolated figure, working on his poetry outside of the mainstream of poetic trends. Nonetheless, he acknowledged a debt to W. H. Auden and the way he had "turned to the industrial scene." His descriptive poetry can be remarkably vivid:

Nicholson's Lake District is not the Lake District of the Tourist Board, not Hawkshead and Windermere, but the industrial coastal towns of Millom, Egremont, Whitehaven, Bootle and Askam. His admirers included T. S. Eliot and Ted Hughes, and Seamus Heaney, who wrote in a poem of tribute:

Other aspects of Nicholson include his social awareness as a champion of the working class. (He worked as a lecturer for the Workers' Educational Association.) His poem "Windscale" about a 1957 nuclear accident has become something of an environmentalists' anthem.

Nicholson was the subject of a South Bank Show broadcast in the United Kingdom on 4 November 1984.

Legacy

Millom Library and the John Rylands Library, Manchester, have bronze busts of Nicholson by Joan Palmer. A memorial stained glass window created by Christine Boyce can be found in St George's Church, Millom.

Nicholson's papers are in the John Rylands Library, Manchester

Millom Heritage Museum and Visitor Centre houses information about Norman Nicholson.

Nicholson's personal collection of published poetry was acquired by the John Rylands Library, Manchester, from his family.

Norman Nicholson's home at 14 St George's Terrace has become a food shop and café; there is a blue plaque on the front of the property, commemorating Nicholson.

The Norman Nicholson Society was inaugurated in Millom, Cumbria, on 31 March 2006 with the intention of celebrating and promoting the work of this distinguished writer as widely as possible. Melvyn Bragg is the Honorary President. The Society aims to be a focal point for appreciation and research and intends to encourage the publication of any Nicholson's works which are currently out of print. Talks and events are arranged throughout the year and a newsletter, Comet, is published and distributed free to members. Comet contains articles on Nicholson's life and work, information about events and original material from members. Contributors to Comet have included David Cooper, Neil Curry, U. A. Fanthorpe, Harry Whalley and Matt Simpson. Contributions relevant to Nicholson's life and work are invited by the editor, Antoinette Fawcett.