Nicholas Evans is an English journalist, screenwriter television and film producer and novelist. Evans was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, and educated at Bromsgrove School before studying at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. He also served in Africa with the charity Voluntary Service Overseas. He then studied journalism and worked as a newspaper reporter and television screenwriter. He lives in Devon. He has a son, Max Evans, who is head of geography at Preston Manor High School, and a daughter, Lauren. He also has another son, Harry, from a relationship he had with Jane Hewland, the TV producer known for Network 7 and GamesMaster.
His novel, The Horse Whisperer was No. 10 on the list of bestselling novels in the United States for 1995 as determined by The New York Times. With 15 million copies sold, it is on the list of the best-selling books of all time. In the UK, The Horse Whisperer was listed on the BBC's Big Read, a 2003 survey with the goal of finding the "nation's best-loved book". It was made into a film in 1998; Robert Redford directed, and he starred opposite Kristin Scott Thomas, along with Scarlett Johansson and Sam Neill.
Evans is married to singer/songwriter Charlotte Gordon Cumming.
Evans, Cumming and several of their relatives were poisoned in September 2008 after consuming deadly webcap mushrooms that they gathered on holiday in Scotland. They all had to undergo kidney dialysis, and Evans underwent a transplant in 2011 using a kidney donated by his daughter.
Evans has revealed on his personal website that he has agreed an option to make a film of his third novel, The Smoke Jumper.
