William Nicholson – Hand

This is a hand made of graphite and was a gift from my wife Virginia. It sits before me on my desk as I write. What I love about it is that it’s a left hand, and being left-handed I hold my pen in this hand; but being carved out of graphite, which is pencil lead, it too can write. I imagine the pointing finger scribbling words on a page, as I scribble words on a page, and so the link between brain, hand, pen and paper is made.

Image William Nicholson

William Nicholson OBE, Fellow of Royal Society of Literature, is a British screenwriter, playwright, and novelist who has been twice nominated for an Oscar. He read English at Christ’s College, Cambridge. He was nominated for the Tony Awards for best play for ‘Shadowlands’ and ‘The Retreat from Moscow’: the former he later adapted for television, and then film in 1993, starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, directed by Richard Attenborough. His other screenplays include ‘Nell’, ‘First Knight’,’Gladiator’, ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age’, ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’. His latest film, ‘Hope Gap’ written and directed by him, starring Bill Nighy and Annette Bening, will be released in June 2020. In addition, he has written many novels including The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life, Motherland, Reckless, and the Young Adult trilogies The Wind on Fire and The Noble Warriors.