Christopher Nicholson was born in London in 1956. He read English at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and lives in south-west England.

His first novel, THE FATTEST MAN IN AMERICA, was published in 2005. THE ELEPHANT KEEPER, which followed in 2009, was shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel award and for the Encore Award. His third novel, WINTER, about the life of the elderly Thomas Hardy, was published in January 2014.

His first non-fiction book, AMONG THE SUMMER SNOWS, a meditation on the great, enigmatic snow-beds that survive each summer in the Scottish mountains, was published in June 2017.

He was married to the artist Catharine Nicholson, who died in 2011, and has two children, a son and a daughter.