Co-Founder of the Wingerworth Writers Association. Owner of WWA-Imprint.
Where We Start
Born in the mid nineteen sixties, Nigel, a British fiction author, does not discuss how old he is, believing once you reach a certain number every year ceases to have any relevance. However, he was born in Lincoln in the East Midlands of England. With three elder sisters, he was the eldest boy of five children. His father spent his whole working life as a Postman.
Growing up on a large council owned estate which contain the schools he attended and all the early friends he made. He describes his upbringing as typical and respectable working class.
Schooling
“My schooling was an absolute failure,” Nigel told me. Too lazy to do the work required to grow his mind. Bullied and ostracized from his peers, at times he found the social element of school life hard. Leaving school without any significant qualifications he entered further education to avoid the various schemes the Government of the time used as a lip service cure for unemployment. After a year in the City’s college, he found a job.
The first of many low paid, low prestige jobs that have been the mainstay of his working life. Retail, factory, clerical, all were employment opportunities, and all were nothing more than a paycheck. You cannot learn or force ambition, and Nigel has zero work ambition. ‘Careers are for those that have faith in the system’
Early Adulthood
At nineteen Nigel left the family home for his own council flat, and his first residence away from the estate that had been his home. He was experiencing a period of unemployment and living was sparse, with tight budgets and gifted furniture. Without a Television, the staple entertainment his family grew with, he found a new way of entertaining himself.
Music, always a love, played during the day, and BBC radio four in the evening. He says of radio, “I can’t stand DJs and if I find a station playing music I like within a few songs, they are playing music that is dull. I turned to Radio four for a voice and found entertaining shows.”
For creative outlet Nigel tried his hand at music but, although he practiced, found he lacked the flair to sound like the musicians he loved.
After deciding to improve his qualifications through a college course he found a fluency with words that he lacked at school. All the books he read and the voices he heard had an influence on him. His mind had grown beyond his education.
The End. The new Beginning.
Boosted by his success in English language and literature Nigel wrote his first novel over a long summer in the eighties. Excited by completing the task, he sent a manuscript to several publishers and found rejection. “I should have been tougher,” he says, “I had been rejected by women, rejected for jobs. But it hurt when those publishers rejected me. Looking back a little later, I saw how badly written it really was.” Independent publishing in the eighties was expensive and less democratic than it is now. Nigel put thoughts of writing to one side and the drudgery of manual service labour wrapped around like a safety blanket.
The despair of failed relationships and a lack of any real prospect of permanent employment drove Mr Hare away from his birth town. Drifting around the country, he stayed in a few towns and cities before settling in a Staffordshire town close to the border of Derbyshire. Freed from his past and the murky disillusion in his mind, Nigel began building a life. A renewal, or as Nigel has said, “A rebirth.”
Renewal
Twenty years ago, he finally followed in his father’s footsteps and joined Royal Mail. And found a job that paid enough and gave a fair amount of satisfaction. Spending half of his work time alone suited his personality. A job that he finally felt he could stay at till he retired. All this experience he channelled into his first novel.
“I love writing,” he says, “Creating characters and plot allows my mind to flow through situations. That working class experience, the angry children, the kitchen sink dramas, where are they? All those novels I enjoyed that spoke to me about my own life are not out there. Yes, we desire escape, but we also need verification of our existence. It is ok to be angry on a message board – find your own angry tribe. Anger needs to understand the truth, not to apportion blame but to make existence better for all.”
Nigel was married in 2023, gaining another four stepchildren to go with his own daughter. Between all the children there are twelve (at the time of writing) grandchildren. He now lives in a village outside a Derbyshire town.
The unique feeling of feeling settled, and content is upon him.
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