| David Nobbs’s most famous creation is undoubtedly Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, star of three novels and three television series. Like Reggie himself, the series refuses to die,and was recently revived with Martin Clunes as Reggie. David doesn’t resent this. He didn’t get where he is today by being upset when people mouth his own catch-phrases at him.
But there is far more to David’s career than Reggie Perrin. There’s his acclaimed series, A Bit Of A Do, which gained audiences of fourteen million for Yorkshire Television. There’s his work for many top comedians, including Frankie Howerd, Les Dawson and The Two Ronnies.
And above all there are his novels, eighteen of them, all of them humorous in tone, leading Jonathan Coe to state ‘David Nobbs is probably our finest post-war comic novelist.’ They include the four Perrin novels, the four Henry Pratt novels, and two of his own great favourites, Going Gently, Obstacles to Young Love (shortlisted for the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance) and his eighteenth, It Had To Be You, published on June 23rd, 2011.
You can read about all these books here, plus details of his life, his radio and television work, his influences, his enthusiasms, his prejudices, his occasional public appearances. You can ask him questions – he’ll be pleased to hear from you – and he will write a fairly regular blog with his unique take on the events of the day.
David is writing as energetically as ever. He loves to write. But he knows that he wouldn’t retain his energy and enthusiasm in his eighth decade if it wasn’t for his readers. He values his readers very highly, and welcomes each and every one of you to these pages. |
