David Nicholls used to be an actor. Starring in The Deal, an Open University Mathematics programme and, little known to his fans today, the first ever production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, his career seemed to be set.

Except, he was only the understudy, an experience fans of David Nicholls are more likely to associate with his literary creation, Stephen C. McQueen, whose acting career amounted to playing “six corpses... each of them carefully thought through and subtly delineated”. 

Stephen’s experience of the acting world, however, was not very far off Nicholls’ own. “I was a terrible actor”, Nicholls tells a packed Union library, and probably only got roles through “nepotism and pity.”

His years in the theatre were, however, formative, if somewhat unsuccessful. Even after nine weeks in rehearsal for Arcadia, Nicholls never made it onto the stage of this "undisputed masterpiece". Instead, he was playing the understudy for the man he assumes must have been “the healthiest actor in British theatre”. 

This, he continues, is when he realised, that “the best job in that rehearsal room was Tom Stoppard’s,” and thus his career as both screenwriter and novelist began.

However, this proto-Stoppard was not quite fully formed; “I wouldn’t dream of calling myself a novelist in my twenties”, Nicholls smiles. But when the novels began, he was very influenced by the way he had written scripts: a David Nicholls novel is planned, “chapter by chapter”, with a “clear arc”, each character portrait complete with their own list of sketches and favourite foods – a holistic approach that perhaps accounts for how seamlessly Nicholls’ literary world has translated onto the silver screen in recent years. 

Actually converting his novels to cinematic format, however, Nicholls describes as one of his “least enjoyable jobs”. “It’s like trying to pull out your own teeth”, he goes on, and “I would never do it again.” A bold statement given the success of Starter for 10 and more recently One Day – bolder, even, given the imminent release of his much awaited-novel, Us. 

When asked about this new work, he told the Union of “another love story” but one that remained “very different” from the heart-wrenching twists and turns of One Day. It’s “a lot more about family”, following a marriage over 25 years, as a man tries to persuade his wife to change her mind about leaving him as their son goes off to college. 

One Day was a “love letter to friendship”, Nicholls continues, explaining his change in subject matter, but it was also a “farewell”. Having just become a father when it was written, he speaks of One Day as both a celebration of the power of friendship but also a recognition that his life had gained new priorities.

“I am less secure about writing young love now”, Nicholls admits – a statement surprising to anyone who has witnessed the epic love story that is ‘Em and Dex’. But, he goes on, this is to be expected; his protagonists have always grown with him. 

Starter for 10’s Brian is too scared even to join his university’s Feminist Society, “not entirely confident that... [he’s] not just joining as a way to meet girls.” Nicholls, who himself studied English and Theatre at Bristol, contemplates that he was “pretty close to that at 18”. Next, there is Stephen, the struggling actor. And finally, Emma Morley, who Nicholls says he is “much closer to... than I was to Dexter”. 

In a way, he goes on, its like “I’m writing out the ages of my life”; a motivation that perhaps accounts for why his novels are continually structured around time, one audience members observes. Nicholls agrees, stating his fascination with how we change between 20 and 40, with what changes us, whether in this time we pass through an “essential self”.

It’s hard to be sure. But in this friendly, bright novelist, there seems to be a bit of everything. Nicholls the actor, Nicholls the screenplay writer and Nicholls the author – and more significantly for those who have read him, a bit of Brian, a bit of Stephen and, even after the tragic end to a favourite novel, a bit of Emma Morley.