William Nicholson (writer)

William Benedict Nicholson, OBE, FRSL (born 12 January 1948) is a British screenwriter, playwright, and novelist who has been nominated twice for an Oscar.

A native of Lewes, Sussex, William Nicholson was raised in a Roman Catholic family in Gloucestershire. By the time he reached his tenth birthday he had decided to become a writer. He was educated at Downside School, Somerset, and Christ's College, Cambridge.

At the start of his career Nicholson worked for the BBC as a director of documentary films with numerous works to his credit between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s. He gained renown as a novelist and playwright when the first book of his popular Wind On Fire trilogy won the Blue Peter best book award and the Smarties Gold Award for best children's book. He has written several novels and fantasy books.

He has twice been nominated for Tony Awards for best play, for Shadowlands and The Retreat from Moscow. He also turned Shadowlands, based on the relationship between C. S. Lewis and Joy Gresham, into a BBC-TV play in 1985, and an acclaimed film in 1993. The latter starred Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger and was directed by Richard Attenborough. His other screenplays include Nell (1994), First Knight (1995) and Grey Owl (1999). He later worked as a writer on the Academy Award winning epic Gladiator (2000), and wrote and directed the 1997 film Firelight.

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