S R Nicholls

SR Nicholls was brought up in London but has lived in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England for the last thirty years. Her first novel, The Lion And The Loom, was initially inspired by frequent visits to Ireland and East London where modernity has still not dimmed the echoes of the past. An important influence was also the traumatic end of the poet Edmund Spenser's life as an crown official in Ireland. For the novel, SR Nicholls wrote and researched Celtic myths and sixteenth century English prose and documents, in the course of which modern history resonated. She subscribed to the view that, unless the impact of national, religious and tribal loyalties are always taken account of, valued and appreciated by power brokers from different cultural backgrounds, the seeds of conflict will not die, but merely remain dormant.